


Rising Souls

by SquirrelNo2



Series: Instrument of Chaos [11]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Parent(s), Memory Loss, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-17 01:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 34
Words: 48,324
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28840641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquirrelNo2/pseuds/SquirrelNo2
Summary: Julie and her friends are doing ok. Her relationship with Carrie is on the mend, everybody who wants a romance is happily in one, and all they've had to worry about for a while now is who gets to have Flynn in the audience if Julie and the Phantoms and Dirty Candi have conflicting schedules.Then, Carrie wakes up to a world that's wrong - and how is she supposed to tell Julie that her mother isn't supposed to be alive?
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters
Series: Instrument of Chaos [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953958
Comments: 792
Kudos: 103





	1. Life Is Good

**Author's Note:**

> This is it folks. This is the one I've been foreshadowing for a good long while, though admittedly when I first hinted at it I had a far less interesting plan in mind until several commenters, first of whom was the_afterlight, went for the absolute worst interpretation and I said "well now I have to do that one."  
> So you know, you have no one to blame but yourselves, because the_afterlight was by far not the only one to think of this.  
> This has a tentative update schedule of daily? I think I'll be able to do it? If not, it'll be every other day. I really shouldn't have started an epic of unknown proportions at the same time I was starting a thirty-four chapter (yes, you did read that right) monstrosity for this series. But hey, more story for people who like my stuff??? Anyway I am going to be. Doing My Best.

Julie tried not to think words like “normal” and “everyday” for fear that those things would change (again) but it was a normal day in the nicest of ways.

Luke and Reggie showed up just as she was heading to lunch, playing their new favourite game of trying to get a response out of her in non-ghost zones. The tactics ranged from bad jokes to being unbearably cute with each other, as well as occasionally hugging Julie or taking her hand. Julie prided herself on the fact that the most they’d gotten so far was a smile, even if it was of a size that would be difficult to explain.

Today it was “be adorable boyfriends and taunt Julie about her inability to join in,” apparently, because as soon as they saw Julie leave the classroom Luke looped his arm around Reggie’s waist and kissed his cheek. Julie allowed herself a tiny, playful glare as she passed.

“Hey, Julie,” Reggie said as they trailed after her. Julie carefully did not glance back until she could hide the motion by opening her locker. They were still practically glued together, Reggie’s hand idly playing with the ends of Luke’s hair. She shook her head at them.

“You two are terrible,” she said. “I’d take a hug.”

They wasted no time darting in for one, and she brought her arms up to wrap around theirs for a moment before pulling herself free.

“I take it you’re sticking around for lunch?” she asked them, because it felt weird to assume and also she really wanted the answer to be yes.

“Yeah,” Luke said. He leaned his chin on her shoulder, and when Julie looked at him he pouted. She knocked her head against his, gently nudging him off, and pulled her lunch out of her locker.

“We miss you,” Reggie said.

“You always say that,” Julie said.

“Well, we always miss you,” Luke replied, which did sound both logical and sweet. “Alex and Willie might show up. I think Alex is still trying to convince Carrie to let him come to rehearsals.”

“Not like she could stop him,” Julie said. “Kayla and the others would be _so_ confused if Carrie started insulting thin air.”

“Actually, I think she does do that,” a new voice said. Nick grinned at her as she closed her door. “She likes to practice.”

“I really wish I was surprised,” Julie said.

Flynn and Carrie were already in the lunchroom, sitting with the rest of Dirty Candi. Flynn’s arm was around Carrie, messing with her hair, as Carrie and Kayla talked.

“Hey, Jules, how was calculus?” Flynn asked.

“It’s calculus, how do you think it was?” Julie replied.

Alex poofed into the seat by Nick, who jumped slightly, then laughed when he realised who it was.

“Flynn, did you ask her?” Alex said, propping his elbows on the table and leaning forward.

Flynn raised a sardonic eyebrow, but it was Carrie who replied.

“By the way, Flynn, tell your friend Alex that nobody sees Dirty Candi rehearsals unless they’re in the group.”

“I see them,” Flynn pointed out.

“You’re my muse, you don’t count,” Carrie said, inspecting her nails.

“Why are all the sweet things you tell me also incredibly mean?” Flynn asked, though Julie was pretty sure Flynn, of all people, knew the answer.

“I could be in the group,” Alex pointed out.

“Dude, one group isn’t enough for you?” Luke said.

“Yeah, I don’t get to move very much when I’m sitting behind the drums,” Alex said.

“If you ask me, you just like being able to whack people in the face without them knowing it,” Willie said, sitting down sideways on the bench. “Hey.”

“Love that it’s a ghost party,” Carrie muttered under her breath, her friends safely focused on a discussion that didn’t include Julie’s half of the table.

“Well, you don’t _have_ to sit with us all the time,” Julie said nonchalantly. Carrie narrowed her eyes and scooted a little closer to Flynn, but there was a lot more play in it than there might have been a month ago. Julie was just glad she didn’t feel like she’d stepped on a landmine every time she made a joke like that.

“Come on, Jules, like Carrie would ever give up all _this_ ,” Flynn said, waving her hand to encompass the table. Julie looked around. Reggie and Luke’s cuddle had turned into a wrestle, Willie had accidentally pushed Alex off the bench, and Nick had narrowly saved his lunch from joining Alex.

“Yeah, I’m sure Carrie feels very sentimental towards us,” Julie said.

Flynn eyed Willie, who was laughing so hard he couldn’t help Alex up.

“Ok, maybe she’s just here for me,” Flynn said.

“She’s perfectly capable of hearing you,” Carrie said airily. Flynn laughed and kissed her cheek, and for a second Carrie’s eyes bulged like one of those squishy toys.

“Believe me, we know,” Flynn said.

“Not like I could get rid of you if I tried,” Carrie said. “ _Somebody_ wouldn’t let me.”

She tapped her bag with a roll of her eyes. Flynn and Julie exchanged grimaces.

The Instrument still hadn’t left Carrie’s side since it first went after her, and the way Carrie had been talking about it lately Julie was worried that maybe it had started actually _speaking_ to her. Certainly, Carrie was starting to act like she knew what it wanted, though whenever one of the others asked she clammed up. Julie wished Carrie would talk about it, but Julie didn’t blame her. That thing had caused enough problems in all of their lives.

“At least it means you get time with me,” Flynn said.

“Yeah, I guess that’s pretty good,” Carrie said with a fond roll of her eyes. She turned away from Flynn to talk to Kayla again, leaning back against Flynn.

“Can I have, like. One arm to eat?” Flynn complained. Smirking, Carrie wriggled so even more of her weight lay against Flynn.

“You wanted a mean girlfriend,” Julie said.

“Yours keep trying to goad you into making a fool of yourself at school, you don’t get to talk,” Flynn said. She fished a tiny shred of paper from her pocket and flicked it at Luke, who pouted at her.

“Flynn,” he whined.

“She’s not wrong,” Julie told him, scooting closer.

“That’s because we love you, though,” Reggie said.

“You know you can’t win everything with that line,” Julie said. “Just most things.”

Ava grimaced.

“He’s so small,” she said, revolted.

“Do you want to do this, or not?” Caleb snapped. “Possess him. Now.”

“You don’t exactly scare me,” Ava muttered. “The world’s most toothless, pathetic spirit.”

“Pathetic?” Caleb laughed. “And yet, you came to me for help getting your little toy back.”

“My so-called toy is going to put you back on top,” Ava said. She scowled and did her best to imitate what Caleb had told her about possession. Perhaps she should have invested some time into this before now, but she had been far too busy with the Instrument.

Caleb’s instruction worked, and Ava felt herself dissipate for just a second before rediscovering herself in the small, scrawny body of some unassuming fourteen-year-old cello player.

“Other side of the lunchroom,” Caleb murmured in Ava’s borrowed ear. Ava bit back the urge to respond – yes, _obviously_ , Caleb, she was the first one to see them – and made her way over.

Just as she walked past the blonde girl, the one who’d _stolen_ her Instrument from her in a far worse way than any of the others, she pretended to trip.

The blonde shrieked as Ava fell on her, too preoccupied with shoving her off to notice the Instrument falling to the floor. Ava picked it up and rolled it over to Caleb before the girl, or Flynn beside her, could recover. He vanished. Ava, knowing it was only a matter of seconds before the Instrument wormed its way from his grasp out of spite, pulled herself free from the boy and left the children to wonder what had just happened.

She had a whole slew of timelines to erase.


	2. Your Wildest Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie has the worst morning in the history of bad mornings.

Carrie had a busy day ahead of her on Saturday – movie with Flynn, Dirty Candi rehearsal, being a good little rockstar’s daughter at yet another rich people party. She practically ran down the stairs once she was ready.

“You look nice,” her dad commented. “The party isn’t until tonight.”

“I’m going to see Flynn,” Carrie reminded her dad.

“I didn’t know you made up,” he said, sounding astonished. Carrie dropped her toast.

Her dad had been there for that. He’d _been there_ when she and Flynn started dating. It wasn’t like he would just forget that time he was briefly a ghost version of his seventeen-year-old self.

She plunged her hand into her purse, seeking the Instrument in its usual place. Nothing was there. Trying to force her breath out at an even tempo, Carrie ran back upstairs and searched her nightstand, under the bed, every little corner the Instrument might have wandered to in order to mess with her. She couldn't find it.

"Carrie? What are you looking for?" Her dad had followed her. Hastily, Carrie described the Instrument to him, only for him to give his answer in a bewildered shake of the head.

“Never mind. I have to go,” Carrie said, pausing only to kick off her heels and slip on sneakers instead before she was running out the door and down the street towards the closest bus stop.

Carrie was about to get off at the stop by Flynn’s house when she saw Julie and Flynn waiting on the sidewalk outside. She clenched her fist tightly around the pole, letting the other riders get off, and waited.

“Flynn,” she said as her girlfriend entered the bus.

Flynn stopped short.

“What do you want?” Flynn asked. Carrie opened her mouth, but for once she had nothing to say. Sure, maybe she existed here, maybe Flynn knew who she was, and that should have been a step up from last time, but… Flynn didn’t _know_ her anymore.

“Flynn,” Julie whispered, nudging her and glancing meaningfully at the people behind them. The two girls sidled awkwardly past Carrie.

“Flynn!” Carrie said quickly. “This is going to sound weird.”

“It already does, you haven’t insulted me once,” Flynn said.

Carrie tried to smile, then remembered that would actually make her look even weirder than she already did. Unless she did the nasty smile.

Carrie didn’t really want to break out the nasty smile for Flynn, even to make her feel better.

“Have you seen… a little metal ball, about this big?” she asked, holding up her hands to demonstrate the size of the Instrument.

“No?” Flynn said, exchanging a bewildered glance with Julie.

“Ok,” Carrie said. “I – sorry.”

She turned away so she didn’t have to see the shocked look on Flynn’s face.

God, that was her _girlfriend_ who looked right through her, who was ready for a fight because of a long history of Carrie saying things she never should have, and Carrie couldn’t even get mad like she used to. Carrie had known she’d hurt a lot of people, the way she’d been the past few years, but she’d never expected it to come back to bite her quite like this. Carrie felt the urge to lash out, punish somebody for it, the way she always did, but who was she going to scream at? Herself, or people who didn’t deserve it?

She would just get off at the next stop, and… do something. Julie didn’t remember, Flynn didn’t, but what had _changed_? They didn’t know the Instrument by description, so it was even before Julie and Reggie and Luke had gotten together.

The ghosts. It had to be something about the ghosts. Carrie almost whipped around to ask before remembering that would only make Julie and Flynn warier, even if they did have a good answer for her. She gritted her teeth and hurried off when the bus came to a stop.

“Ok,” she muttered to herself, glaring at the woman who gave her a concerned look as she walked past. “You’re fine. You can do this. You can fix this. The boys didn’t know you very well when you were a jerk, so they’d listen. You just… have to go find them.”

Her closest option was the studio, and she knew Julie wasn’t there. She just had to hope Ray or Carlos didn’t decide to wander past.

Trying to fill herself with purpose, Carrie set off back the way the bus had came, towards Julie’s house.

Nobody was outside, and Carrie snuck through the tallest of the plants in case somebody glanced out the window. It was pretty humiliating, but she wasn’t going to try and explain herself if somebody saw her, not until she knew what, exactly, she was dealing with.

As she approached the studio, she heard the faint sound of a piano from within.

Julie was out. It must have been Reggie, Carrie decided, and she smiled in excitement. There was no way Reggie would be able to resist her sob story.

“Carrie?”

Carrie stared in horror at the woman at the piano. It was Julie’s mother, Rose, alive and healthy and incredibly confused.

“I’m sorry,” Carrie said. “I – I have to go.” She turned and ran.

“Carrie, wait! Are you all right?” Rose called after her.

Rose was still alive, so Julie never needed the ghosts. They’d never time travelled. Nick had never been possessed.

Carrie had never moved on with Julie and Flynn. Her only friends were Nick, who may or may not be her ex, and the members of Dirty Candi, who were all still various levels of scared of her.

Carrie didn’t cry until she got home and into her room, but it was a close thing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I do feel bad about this. Not enough to change the premise. But dang, how much must it suck to know your life going good depends on the death of somebody important to you? The bulk of it hasn't even hit Carrie yet.  
> Anyway, this one was short but I didn't think you'd want me milking this particular bit of angst any longer than I have to. Tomorrow, Carrie makes a plan, and gathers a few friends in her corner at last.


	3. Whatcha Gonna Do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie engages in a little light theft for fun and profit.

After pacing for an hour, snapping at her dad when he asked what was wrong, and then pacing for another hour, Carrie settled on a plan. If Julie had never summoned her ghosts – likely, since she wouldn’t have needed them with her mom still around – then they were still out there to be summoned. Maybe they knew Carrie, maybe they didn’t, but Carrie was pretty sure all she’d have to do was point them toward Julie and let them do the work of the befriending for her.

And then… something. Carrie hadn’t got that far. She kind of didn’t want to.

So, step one: summon ghosts. For a heart-stopping few seconds Carrie couldn’t remember what Flynn and the others had said about how that happened, and she started to genuinely wonder if she needed a Ouija board before she finally recalled something about a cd in the studio loft.

She had to go back there. Again. After completely embarrassing herself and no doubt mystifying Rose.

Well, at least her weird behaviour might make Flynn and Julie more inclined to believe Carrie if she tried to tell them what was going on.

“Dad, I’m sorry I snapped at you, and I’m going out again,” Carrie announced when she finally made her way out to the living room. He stared at her.

“The party is in a couple hours,” he said.

“I really have to do this,” Carrie said fervently.

“Ok,” he said. “You sure you’re all right?”

 _No_ , Carrie didn’t say, because that would not have gone over well.

“Obviously,” she said with a little hair flip to get him to smile. “I’m perfect, as always. Just gotta get… a little more perfect.”

He smiled at her, still clearly concerned but also aware that he wasn’t going to get anything out of her without spending more time than he had.

“Don’t stay out too late, baby girl,” he said.

Carrie rolled her eyes. She once scared an evil ghost into submission. She’d be _fine_.

Then again, she was about to talk to an angry Julie after weeks of working on their relationship. Maybe things wouldn’t be so fine.

She was really hoping nobody was in the studio when she knocked, which naturally meant Julie opened the door.

“Carrie?” Julie shook her head. “What are you doing here?”

“I… was out for a walk,” Carrie said.

“A walk,” Julie repeated flatly.

“Yes, you know how to do that, right?” Carrie said automatically, forgetting that this would come across very differently to this particular Julie. Sure enough, Julie’s eyebrows flew up her forehead, and she looked like she was plotting a comeback.

“Can I use your bathroom?” Carrie asked quickly, trying to make her smile as genuine and friendly as possible. Julie looked like she thought Carrie might eat her. Carrie backed off on the teeth.

“Uh, in the studio?” Julie asked.

“It felt weird to go to your house,” Carrie said. _This is just revenge for that time with the water_ , she told herself. _Julie will laugh about it when things are normal_.

“Ok, come on in,” Julie said slowly. Carrie made a beeline for the bathroom, but as she did she glanced up to the loft. The cd was somewhere in there, but how could she get Julie away long enough to get it?

She shut herself in the bathroom, trying to think. This process included pacing, which resulted in her tripping over the plunger.

“Everything ok in there?” Julie called. Carrie stared at the plunger, wishing she was about to do anything else.

Plunger safely hidden behind the door, she opened it a crack and smiled at Julie.

“The toilet’s blocked up a little,” she said.

“Wait, seriously? It wasn’t this morning,” Julie asked, attempting to go in.

“I know,” Carrie said, regretting all her life choices.

“Oh,” Julie said.

“There’s no plunger in here,” Carrie lied.

“I’ll… go get one,” Julie said.

“Thanks!” Carrie called, banging her head on the door as Julie left. Was this what it felt like to be Julie? Bad at lying _all_ the time?

The boys better be linked to that cd still, because that was one of the more humiliating experiences of Carrie’s life.

She hurried to the loft, looking around frantically.

“Come on,” Carrie muttered, trying to sort through things. “Please.”

Of course, in this timeline, there was no Rose or Julie magic helping things along. Carrie finally found it as she heard Julie approach. She practically jumped down the ladder, shoving the cd in her purse, and smiled nervously at Julie.

“Just looking around,” Carrie said. She snatched the plunger. “I’ll take care of this, don’t worry about it, it’ll be like I was never here!”

Carrie shut the door and leaned against it, trying not to scream. She’d made it. The plunger thing was embarrassing and hard to explain, but it wouldn’t matter if the guys came back and helped her fix things.

After a few seconds of internal screaming, Carrie flushed the toilet for verisimilitude and opened the door just wide enough to get out. She was not risking Julie finding out about the double plunger thing until Carrie was well on her way back home.

“Thanks, Julie, bye!” Carrie called as she all but ran out.

It was her last bus ride of the night, barring some new and obnoxious catastrophe, and she kept one hand in her purse, nervously tapping the edge of the jewel case she’d stolen from Julie. It felt wrong to have Sunset Curve’s demo, somehow. Maybe that was because Carrie still didn’t know how she felt about her dad’s past. Maybe it was because, as long as she’d known about ghosts, they were always _Julie’s_ special thing. Keeping ghosts a secret from Julie was like… Carrie didn’t even know. Like Carrie missing a Dirty Candi show. Or Flynn not decorating for Christmas.

“It’s ok,” Carrie told herself as she got off the bus. “This is for Julie. And that is certainly a sentence you didn’t think you’d ever be saying again, a few months ago.”

She made it home as her dad headed out. He asked if she wanted him to stay, but Carrie shook her head. It was obvious he needed to be there, and she could handle herself. Besides, if the guys didn’t remember everything Carrie did, there was a very good chance she’d land herself in a horror movie with bad special effects as soon as they saw her dad.

When he was gone, she dug out the old boombox from her closet, pausing for a moment of nostalgia over the memory of Rose gifting it to her because she and Julie had been so enamoured with it as kids. She dropped the cd in, hit play, and waited.

Two seconds in, Carrie knew it had worked: she could hear the guys screaming. With a roll of her eyes, she looked around the room, trying to figure out where they’d appear. As soon as they did, bouncing onto her bedspread because of _course_ they would, she flicked the stop button.

“Ow,” Reggie groaned, rolling over so he was staring at the ceiling. “Where are we?”

“Guys?” Carrie asked timidly. All three boys jerked their heads up, and Luke scrambled off the bed towards her.

“Carrie!” Alex said, following. Reggie slid off the other side, taking a second to look around the room.

“What happened? Where’s Julie? Is this your room?” Luke asked rapidly.

“There’s a lot of glitter,” Reggie observed.

“You’ve seen my shows, Reginald, you know I like glitter,” Carrie said, because if she said anything else she might break down crying and she really wasn’t ready to do that in front of Julie’s ghost band, even if they were friends.

They _knew_ her. She pressed a hand to her mouth. She would _not_ cry.

“What happened?” Alex asked. “We blinked, and all of a sudden we’re in that same dark room from before – from before we met Julie.”

“Are you ok?” Reggie asked.

“Somebody took the Instrument,” Carrie ground out when she thought she trusted her voice not to crack. Fortunately, it didn’t.

Unfortunately, her words came out hoarse and quiet.

“What changed?” Luke asked, looking horrified.

“Everything,” Carrie admitted. “But, um… I think what happened is somebody saved Julie’s mom.”

The three boys looked around at each other. They didn’t look upset, but they didn’t seem happy either – just bewildered by everything that meant.

“Flynn doesn’t remember that we fixed things,” Carrie said.

“Oh, no,” Alex said softly.

“Flynn doesn’t, and Julie doesn’t either, and nothing any of us did has ever happened, and Julie never even _met_ you!”

Carrie closed her mouth, her chin trembling. The boys gaped at her.

“Do you need a hug?” Reggie offered after a moment. He grimaced. “I think I do.”

Miserably, Carrie opened up her arms. Reggie and Luke wasted no time in clinging to her like baby animals on their mother’s back. Alex stayed where he was, looking worried.

“How do we fix it?” he asked. “I mean… you don’t want to…”

“No!” Carrie said quickly. “I mean, I don’t know? I just want…”

“Yeah,” Luke said, tightening his grip on Carrie. “I know.”

They probably did, considering. Carrie felt a little guilty for bringing them into a situation where there was every chance Julie might walk through them.

“What if we made them remember the old timeline? That could work, right?” Reggie suggested.

“Julie doesn’t remember her magic,” Carrie said. “She had death magic, who even knows if it would be the same here. And Flynn…”

Honestly, even if Flynn and Julie were starting at the same place memory-wise, and even if Flynn’s whole friendship thing was more likely to work here, Carrie thought her chances were better with Julie. Her girlfriend could hold a grudge longer than anybody Carrie knew except maybe herself, and right now Carrie was at the top of Flynn’s revenge hitlist, just waiting for an excuse to be egged or pranked or something.

“Yeah, but it’s worth a try,” Luke said. “And if Rose is alive, maybe she could?”

“We’ve never seen that memory stuff go backwards, though,” Alex pointed out. “Only forward, to whatever timeline you’re in.”

“It’s worth a try,” Luke said more firmly. “Anything is. Now get over here and join the group hug, dude, it’s weird that you’re just watching us.”

Alex almost smiled as he wormed his way in between Luke and Reggie. Carrie squeezed her eyes shut. If she cried, it wasn’t like the boys had anybody they could tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heaves a sigh of relief over Carrie not being alone anymore. Also, we're now going to get into shifting povs, not just sticking in Carrie's head, so... everybody gets a time to shine! Or, you know, be confused, depending on the situation.  
> Is Carrie's plan to be alone in the studio absolutely terrible? Yes. Is it 100 percent the kind of thing I would do under similar circumstances? Definitely. In Carrie's defense, like she said, this is basically her version of Julie and Flynn showing up like "we just climbed your barbed wire fence and boy are we tired! water please?" like they just climbed barbed wire for fun. The girls hide it better, but they are also operating on at best one brain cell most of the time.  
> Next time: while Carrie finally gets some rest after her long and awful day, Luke has to come to terms with the fact that his band is back down to three, and also very invisible all the time.


	4. Got a Vacancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Three himbos introspect in impressively thoughtful ways. The stars are gazed at often.

Carrie fell asleep early that evening. Luke didn’t blame her. He was exhausted, too, after the panic of finding himself and the boys back in that dark room, and then everything with Carrie after she got them out. If sleep was still an option for him, he’d gladly choose it.

As it was, the three ghosts milled awkwardly around the ground floor of their ex-friend’s home, too subdued to even poke around Bobby and Carrie’s belongings.

“Why do you think they did it?” Reggie asked suddenly. He hugged his knees to his chest as he stared out the gigantic windows. “Did they expect us to remember?”

“We don’t even know for sure who did it,” Alex said.

“Yeah, we do,” Luke said. “Caleb and Ava.”

Reggie winced. Luke sat down next to him, wrapping his arm around Reggie when his boyfriend leaned on him.

“Like Carrie said, Julie probably doesn’t have ghost powers right now,” Luke said. “They did it because they know to be scared at her.”

“I don’t think that’s as comforting as you think it is,” Alex said, sitting beside Luke.

“Yeah, maybe, but we just gotta get Julie to help us!” Luke insisted.

“How?” Reggie muttered petulantly. “She probably can’t even see us.”

Luke kissed the top of Reggie’s head. He didn’t have an answer.

“What do you even say?” Alex asked. Luke glanced at him, lifting his other arm in case Alex needed a hug. Alex gave him a faint half-smile and shook his head.

“Do you think Willie remembers?” Alex asked quietly.

From what Luke knew, there was no reason Willie should. But he wouldn’t say that to Alex.

“I don’t know,” he said instead, since it wasn’t a lie.

“Aren’t you scared, Luke?” Reggie asked quietly. Luke buried his face in Reggie’s hair.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “But hey, we’ve done this before. _You_ have.”

“Before, we had Julie, and Willie, and Flynn,” Reggie said. “Before, we thought we could get you two back _and_ keep the adult versions of you alive.”

“Well, we have me and Alex and Carrie now,” Luke said. “And – and we know a lot more than we did. So yeah, Reg, I’m terrified. But we can do this.”

“Yeah, just as soon as we figure out _what_ to do,” Reggie said. He lifted his chin, staring up at the sky outside the window. Luke adjusted so their heads were side by side, keeping his gaze on Reggie’s face.

“What do we do if it does come down to memories of us and Carrie, or Rose?” Alex asked quietly.

“Dude,” Luke said. “Come on. That’s a big if.”

“I don’t want Julie to lose her mom for us,” Reggie said.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “It’s one thing – death or no death, we have stuff ahead of us. The most we know Rose ever did after she died was send us to Julie.”

“And all those other signs,” Luke said.

Alex shook his head. “Maybe Rose didn’t _need_ to be a ghost the way we did, but it’s still not fair that she didn’t get the chance to be with Julie the way we have.”

Luke fought the urge to jump up. He didn’t like this, all the maybes and the sadness and the not-so-subtle questions about what was beyond. They’d done it once before, and somehow it was worse this time.

Maybe because all he could think about was Julie, still decidedly on this side of the mortal coil and yet further out of reach than her dead mother had ever been for Luke. Maybe because he was thinking about mothers, and how this was a world where his had never heard the song he wrote her. Maybe because he just hated hearing Reggie so defeated.

“Do you want to go find Willie?” Luke asked. He glanced over at Alex, who was pretending he’d found something fascinating on the floor.

“Nah,” he said, obviously forcing cheer into his voice. “If he remembers, he’ll come to us, right?”

“Not if Caleb remembers and still has his soul,” Reggie muttered darkly. Alex flinched. Luke rubbed his thumb along Reggie’s arm.

“Bro,” he said softly. Reggie sighed, looking over at Alex.

“I’m sorry,” Reggie said.

“You’re right,” Alex said. Now it was his turn to tilt his head up and stare at the stars. “I guess I wanted it to be easy.”

“Pretty sure nothing about this is going to be easy,” Reggie said with a trace of his usual humour. The knot in Luke’s chest loosened.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed. He looked at Luke and Reggie, eyes lingering for a second on the hand Luke had curled around Reggie’s shoulder. “We should look for Willie. Just… I don’t know if I’m ready?”

He hung his head.

“That sounds selfish,” he muttered.

“Dude, no, I get it,” Luke said. “Believe me, I get it.”

“Well, I wanna see Julie,” Reggie announced. “I want to see her with her mom.”

“We might as well,” Alex said. “Considering the last time we saw her was twenty-five years ago right before we died.”

“Yeah, that’s still so weird to me, like what are the odds?” Reggie said, throwing up his hands. Luke laughed, planting another, sloppier kiss on Reggie’s head before he tugged an unresisting Alex in on his other side.

“We’ll be ok, boys, and so will everybody else,” he said, and this time he almost could believe it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me, oscillating wildly between hurt and comfort: Is this good writing?  
> Anyway, character-heavy times, me getting into Luke's head which I so rarely do, and bringing some emotions into play for all three of them. I hope I have not...too terribly destroyed anybody? The boys needed a minute to process, and plan, and then the ball can get rolling soon on trying to tell people the truth.  
> Next time: Reggie was absolutely serious about seeing Julie with Rose. He knows it can't end well, but he's stubborn like that.


	5. Got Too Much to See

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reggie talks to some people. A few of them answer him.

Reggie waited until Carrie woke up, and Luke and Alex started to talk to her, before he slipped away. They’d figure out where he’d gone, he was pretty sure, but he didn’t want the others to feel like they had to come, especially Luke.

He stepped through Julie’s front door, trying not to think about the first time he’d ever done that, when no lifer but Julie knew he and the others were there. Julie hadn’t been too happy with them, but she’d _seen_ them. It had taken Reggie a while to realise how much of a blessing that was.

A woman Reggie had to assume was Rose stood in the kitchen, her back to Reggie, singing something quietly.

“Hi, Rose,” Reggie blurted, because it wasn’t so much that he didn’t know people couldn’t hear him as it was he really wanted to pretend otherwise. “Long time, no see. Well, we haven’t seen you. Maybe you saw us, from heaven or wherever? Can people who’ve passed on do that? I mean, somebody’s gotta check on limbo every once in a while, right?”

“Morning!”

Reggie didn’t have a chance to turn around before Julie walked right through him. He reeled, reaching out to steady himself on the counter as Julie kept moving toward her mom, oblivious.

Even in a world where Julie didn’t quite know what she could do, where she’d never done any of it, she was so _bright_. And the way she’d felt when she walked through him, the way she was smiling at her mom now –

Reggie had seen Julie that free only a handful of times. The Orpheum, after she’d come out to him and Luke as ace, and the occasional moment goofing off with Flynn all sprang to mind, but usually Julie always seemed to have some kind of gravity holding on to her. He knew it was her mom, often, and sometimes he wondered if it was the fact that half her loved ones were ghosts. Either way, it wasn’t tugging at her here.

“Hi, Julie,” Reggie said. He finally understood why Alex and Luke thought it was weird to talk to lifers who couldn’t see them. Julie wasn’t looking at him, and even if it was out of the corner of her eye she _always_ looked. “I, uh – I came to meet your mom. And see how you were doing.”

Julie pretended to steal something from the plate her mother was filling. Rose picked the plate up just before she could, winking at Julie.

“You look really happy,” Reggie said softly as Julie walked over to the silverware drawer, right next to where he stood. She paused, glancing up with a furrowed brow.

“Julie?” he said, and if his heart actually beat Reggie was pretty sure it would be in his throat. Julie gave herself a tiny full-body shake, obviously deciding that whatever she’d thought about wasn’t a problem, and closed the drawer when she’d gathered her fistful of forks.

“We didn’t invite anyone over for breakfast, did we?” Rose asked Julie. Julie gave her a puzzled look.

“On a Tuesday?” Julie said.

“All right, I don’t know what I’m thinking,” Rose said. “Once you set the table, go make sure Carlos is awake, all right?”

“He could just learn to set an alarm,” Julie called over her shoulder.

“The problem is, he has,” Rose muttered fondly. She sighed, staring around the kitchen with an identical look to Julie’s confusion from earlier.

Reggie remembered what Flynn and Carrie had said about Rose’s magic. He gulped. What could she tell about him?

Rose sighed.

“If this is another magic disaster I’m waiting until after noon, at least,” she announced drily. “I have work to get done today.”

“Oh, no,” Reggie said.

“Dude! What are you doing?”

Reggie turned, cringing at the sound of Luke’s voice. He and Alex were both standing there, glaring at him.

“I told you I wanted to see Julie,” he said, trying to sound as stubborn as he felt. It just came out small, though.

“Bro, you didn’t say you would do that on your _own_ ,” Luke said, taking his hands.

“You guys didn’t want to, I wouldn’t make you,” Reggie muttered, avoiding his boyfriend’s gaze.

“Look, things may be bad right now but we’re in this together,” Alex said.

“Reggie, this isn’t like you,” Luke said. “I mean, seeing Julie totally is, but without us? And not even telling us?”

“Please don’t disappear like that on us,” Alex added. “Not now.”

Reggie considered pointing out that of the three of them, Alex was the most likely to wander off somewhere in a fit of emotion, but since the emotion in question was usually anxiety and that was kind of a mean thing to say, he kept quiet. Besides, a different memory popped up for him: that very first alternate timeline, when he’d run out on Julie.

“I’m sorry,” Reggie said. “I’m just – I’m tired of being upset.”

He and Luke had to jump apart when Rose came out of the kitchen and nearly walked into them.

“Come on,” Luke said, and they reconvened outside.

“Talk to us?” Luke offered, taking Reggie’s hand and swinging it gently. Reggie almost smiled.

“I don’t ever know what to do,” he admitted, staring down at their hands. “It’s fine when things are good, that’s just kind of funny. I make everybody laugh, and I like that. But when we have to fix things…”

“Hey, that idea about getting them to remember us here? That was good,” Luke said, squeezing Reggie’s shoulder with his free hand.

“You both said why it wouldn’t work,” Reggie reminded him.

“Yeah, because Alex has anxiety and I’m… thinking of way too many things at once,” Luke said. “Maybe it will work, too. Neither one of us would have thought of it!”

“I might have,” Alex said.

“Dude,” Luke said reproachfully, a rare reversal of their usual relationship. Reggie laughed, realising as soon as Alex smiled that that had been his plan.

“You guys weren’t there for a lot of it,” Reggie said. “The really scary parts.”

“It was pretty scary when you forgot us,” Luke said.

Reggie wrinkled his nose, annoyed that Luke had made a good point and interrupted his.

“First, you couldn’t see me,” he said, trying to explain. “Now Julie can’t. I’m tired of it.”

“Me, too,” Luke breathed, pulling him close.

“Once we figure out how to talk to Julie, and Carrie gets the Instrument back, we’re done, right?” Reggie said. “No more time travel?”

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I mean, we can’t actually promise that, but I am definitely on board with that plan. It sounds great.”

“Definitely,” Luke agreed. “And… we should go because I think if we take any longer Carrie will lose what little cool she’s got.”

That seemed like a credible and terrifying threat, and with one last glance back at the Molina house – his home – Reggie poofed away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look I am exhausted and Reggie does what he wants. Sometimes, that means lots of angst. Also waxing poetic about Julie but that part is not surprising coming from me.  
> Also, yes, as Reggie was talking about how tired he was of all this I was fully aware I was talking about my own decisions as a writer, and yes that was an uncomfortable moment for me. I do not always think my concepts through before I start them, but I certainly think them through as I write, hence the sheer volume of emotion.  
> Final note, Rose said that thing about magic disasters and I realised I needed to restructure a few things - I don't think the chapter count will change? but dang the plot you get will be different from the plot I initially planned because I do what i want and what I want is to remake something completely I guess???  
> Next up: Flynn has quite a few thoughts about this new and maybe improved Carrie and most of them are question marks.


	6. Life's Short

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn has no idea what is happening. Ben from the lacrosse team might but he is merely a bystander.

To Flynn’s annoyance, Carrie’s weirdness did not vanish overnight. At school, Flynn found Carrie standing by her locker – Flynn’s, not Carrie’s – looking nervous. Which was weird, because Flynn could count on one hand the times she’d seen Carrie nervous.

“What do you want?” Flynn asked. Better to get whatever it was out of the way.

Carrie’s shoulders inched up, and then she took a breath and forced them back down.

“I need to talk to you,” she said.

“It does seem like that’s what you’re doing,” Flynn said. Carrie gave her an unimpressed glare, which was the first moment of normal she’d had.

“Look, would you just… Flynn, I know this sounds weird. And crazy, and you have no reason to trust me because I have been the absolute worst to you and Julie but I need to talk to you after school. Please.”

“Just me?” Flynn asked. She should have walked away, but devious revenge wasn’t Carrie’s style. Carrie was always upfront about how much she didn’t like people. And the fact that she legitimately sounded desperate.

“And Julie? And Nick. Though I guess you guys probably don’t talk.”

“Nick?” Flynn repeated, astonished. “Why – What is your problem?”

Carrie took a step back.

“Is… something wrong with Nick?” she asked in a small voice.

“You’re joking, right?” Flynn said.

“Flynn, pretend I am a complete idiot who has no idea what’s been going on the past few months. What is up with Nick?” Carrie demanded.

Flynn closed her locker, really _looking_ at Carrie. Her eyes were red, one thumb tapped nervously on her schoolbooks, and she kept glancing over to the side like she was watching something.

“Something’s wrong,” Flynn said, the impulse to help overriding the impulse to keep Carrie at arm’s length.

“Obviously, Flynn, that’s why I wanted to talk to you,” Carrie snapped. She stopped, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

Something was _really_ wrong.

“I’m sorry,” Carrie said, absolutely flooring Flynn and apparently not even noticing. “Will you just… tell me about Nick?”

“His mom’s been sick,” Flynn said. “Like, rapid onset, at the start of the month, and now… Look, Carrie, he hasn’t even been in school the past week.”

Carrie paled.

“His… his _mom_ ,” she repeated. “But – but just this month, right?”

Flynn nodded.

“Carrie, what is going on with you?” Flynn asked. “Look, I’m not going to just do whatever you say, if you want me to do something for you, I need a reason to do it.”

“The explanation is what I was _trying_ to get you to say yes to,” Carrie said irritably. “It’s a lot to take in and we only have like five minutes until class.”

As if on cue, the warning bell rang.

“Look, it can wait,” Carrie said, ducking her head and stepping further away from Flynn. “I have to talk to Nick, anyway.”

“What, the way you _talked_ to Julie when her mom got sick?” Flynn called after her. Carrie stopped, her back to Flynn, and tilted her head.

“No, Flynn,” Carrie said. “Because I’m worried about him, and I want to be a good friend to the ones I still have.”

“What?” Flynn murmured. She shook her head and hurried off to class, but she couldn’t push the image of Carrie standing there, looking horrified, out of her mind.

It was like Carrie had woken up one morning and – what, exactly? Chosen the exact opposite of violence? Or she was the victim of a mind swap. Except she still snapped like Carrie, a few times during that conversation, but the way she’d pulled herself _back_ …

It wasn’t that Flynn didn’t think people could change. Carrie had changed in the first place, to become the awful obnoxious demon she was now.

But Flynn didn’t know if she trusted this immediate shift in personality, or Carrie’s eagerness to talk to Julie. And all that stuff about Nick – Flynn knew she and Nick hadn’t spoken much since they broke up, but to not even know about his mom?

Something was _wrong_ here. Flynn didn’t really want to buy into Carrie’s mysterious conspiracy theory or whatever, but she did want to know more about what was going on.

She started in a roundabout way, but the Nick connection seemed like a big deal, so she thought it made sense to first talk to a lacrosse player. Ben was easy enough for her to track down at lunchtime, and they were decent friends for people who really only saw each other in class.

“Flynn?” he said when he saw her. “What’s up? You don’t need me to drive you somewhere because you’re planning on egging it again, do you?”

“That was one time, and nobody incriminated you,” Flynn said. “What do you know about Carrie?”

“Carrie Wilson? Nick’s ex? She’s got that group, Dirty Candi,” he said. “Cute, mean, really good dancer. What am I supposed to know? Weren’t you friends or something?”

“Yeah, but… Look, how are she and Nick?” Flynn asked. Ben looked even more confused.

“They’re exes,” he said. “You know Nick’s not really the type to talk about girls, right?”

“Ugh, I know!” Flynn exclaimed. “I’m just so weirded out right now. Does it make any sense at all that Carrie didn’t know about Nick’s mom?”

“No, because she literally sent a get-well card when his mom got sick,” Ben said. “What is this about?”

“Believe me, I wish I knew,” Flynn said. “It’s like today’s Carrie just rolled up from an alternate universe.”

“You got a lot of experience with that?” Ben asked drily. Flynn shoved him.

“Thanks for trying to help,” she said. “I’ll just go find Julie.”

“You know, most people asking about two people’s relationship like that, I’d think you had a crush on one of them,” Ben called after her.

“Good thing I don’t,” Flynn shouted back at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> technically, this is saturday. I have no clue why this one was hard to get out but here we are.  
> Also Ben is just. a name i made up for that dude who steals Flynn from Julie in the dance class scene.  
> Next time, who knows! Carrie talks to Nick? Definitely. Rose decides she's not waiting around for magic shenanigans to get out of hand? most likely.


	7. Come On Over

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Visits are paid. Nick's nails remain partially unpainted, which is the true tragedy of the chapter.

It was Nick’s third princess party in two days, but he wasn’t going to say anything to Rachel. At least it gave him something to do other than homework or visit the hospital, or think about his last visit to the hospital.

Midway through painting his nails, Rachel looked up at him.

“When’s Mom coming home?” she asked.

“When she feels better,” Nick said, trying to smile at her. She narrowed her eyes at him.

“That’s what Dad said last week,” she said. “When I was sick on winter break I was better by Christmas!”

“Rach, sometimes people don’t stop being sick as quickly as you do,” he said. “And not everybody gets sick with a cold.”

“But I didn’t have to leave when I was sick!” Rachel protested. Nick eased the nail polish from her grasp and capped the bottle.

“You had a little sickness,” he said.

“I was _really_ sick,” Rachel insisted.

“I know,” Nick said. “I know it was bad for you. Being sick always is. But Mom has a kind of sickness that gets a lot worse, and needs a lot of help to get better. We can’t just feed her a lot of soup the way we did with you.”

“Good, soup is gross,” Rachel said. Nick laughed.

“I know,” he said.

“Nick!”

His dad poked his head into Rachel’s room.

“Carrie’s at the door,” he said.

“We’ll finish my nails in a bit, ok?” Nick said.

“You said Carrie’s not your girlfriend anymore, why is she here?” Rachel complained. Nick pretended to reach out for her with his wet fingernails, and she shrieked and wriggled away, laughing.

“You don’t have to stop talking to people just because you’re not in love with them,” he said. “Or am I not allowed to have friends?”

“No, just me, I’m your only co-conspirator,” Rachel announced, pronouncing the last word one syllable at a time.

“Ok, well, I don’t have any conspiracies at the moment, so you can have a vacation,” Nick said. “And I’m gonna go find out what Carrie wants.”

The faint smile he’d managed to keep while talking to his sister fell off his face as he headed toward the door. Carrie was standing just inside, hands clasped, looking around his house like she’d never seen it before.

“Hey,” Nick said, halting at the foot of the stairs. They hadn’t had a bad breakup, and Carrie had even checked in on him when his mom got sick. But she hadn’t really stayed in his life either.

“Can we talk? Outside or something?” Carrie asked.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asked. She was actually _wringing_ her hands. Nick had never seen anybody do that, let alone Carrie.

Her face crumpled. Nick’s alarm grew.

“Just come on,” she said with an attempt at her usual snappishness. Nick pulled on his shoes and hurried out the door after her.

“Carrie, what’s going on?” he asked. She stopped on the sidewalk outside his house, not looking at him.

“When did your mom get sick?” Carrie asked.

Nick’s stomach clenched, then disappeared altogether.

“You know the answer to that,” he said.

“Nick, what was the date?” Carrie pressed.

He shrugged. “We noticed on the second?”

“Of the month?” Carrie asked.

“Carrie, I don’t know what this is, but I don’t really have the time for this and I’m not in the mood,” Nick snapped. “I have put up with a lot from you, because I do genuinely like you, but whatever you’re trying to do here –“

“Nick, I’m sorry!” Carrie burst out. “Your mom shouldn’t be sick!”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” he said bitterly.

Carrie shook her head, looking frustrated.

“Nick, I woke up the other day and it was like everything was wrong,” she said. “I know it sounds insane, I know this is the worst conversation I could be having with you, and I’m sorry. But I swear I want to help.”

“With what?” Nick burst out.

“God, Nick, if I tell you everything you’ll think I’m even crazier,” Carrie said. “But I think – I think maybe somebody made your mom get sick.”

He swallowed. It had happened fast, and gotten worse on a quicker time frame than any doctor had expected. In Nick’s more bitter moments, he’d had that same thought.

But it didn’t make sense. You couldn’t _make_ somebody get sick, not like this.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because magic is real, and so are ghosts, and a couple of them hate us and our friends.”

Nick stared at Carrie, who stared back at him with her jaw set, like she was ready for a fight.

“Our friends,” he repeated.

“Believe me, Nick, I know exactly how that sounds to you,” Carrie said. She smiled wryly. “Just wait until I tell you who I mean.”

Nick swallowed. Carrie believed it. It was tempting to believe himself.

“Look, I’ve still got half a hand of unpainted nails,” Nick said. “And a sister who could really use the distraction.”

“I swear, Nick, I wouldn’t lie to you,” Carrie said.

“Just… give me time to think about it, Carrie,” Nick said. “You said it yourself, it’s a lot to take in.”

“Right,” Carrie said. “Yeah. Of course.”

Nick turned around, but something Carrie had said teased at his curiosity.

“Who did you mean?” he asked.

“Julie,” Carrie said. Nick whipped around to stare at her. She was gripping one elbow, staring at her feet. “Some other guys you don’t know.”

She looked up at Nick, then back down.

“Flynn,” she said, her voice breaking slightly.

Nick swallowed.

“I’ll text you when I can talk,” he said. Carrie looked up at him and smiled.

Rose hadn’t sensed the presence from earlier since breakfast, but on reflection she thought it might have had something to do with Carrie’s strange behaviour. Showing up at the studio, the run-ins Julie had mentioned to her…

It had been a minute since she talked to Trevor, anyway.

“Rose? It’s so good to see you, come in!” Trevor exclaimed as soon as he saw her. “What brings you here?”

Well, she certainly wasn’t going to say it was magic.

“Carrie showed up at my studio the other day,” Rose said as she stepped inside. “And she looked terrified.”

Trevor’s face fell. “I don’t know what it is, but the other day she woke up and talked about seeing Flynn. Have she and Julie –“

“As far as I know, the girls haven’t made up,” Rose said. Trevor offered her a glass of water, and she accepted with a smile. “Has anything else strange happened to Carrie?”

He looked at her quizzically as they sat.

“What do you mean?”

“If something had, you’d know what I meant,” Rose said drily, leaning back. “She’s not here right now?”

He shook his head. “She said she was going to visit a friend.”

Rose hummed thoughtfully, trying to think of what she could do. She didn’t want to worry Trevor, and she was pretty sure asking to stay and talk to Carrie would do exactly that. She didn’t want to ask Julie to get involved, since her daughter had every right to decide who she talked to and when. The most she could do was stay aware of magical events, to see if whatever Carrie had potentially gotten involved in was being talked about.

As if summoned by her thoughts, the presence from earlier arrived. Rose looked around the room, trying to see if there was anything new.

“Rose? Is something wrong?”

“No,” Rose said, smiling at Trevor. “I just… let me know if there’s anything I can do for Carrie.”

“Thanks,” he said. “I’m sure Carrie won’t say anything, but I’m also sure she’ll appreciate it.”

“Take care of yourself,” Rose said. She cast one last look around, and caught a glimpse of a book nearly falling off the table even though neither she nor Trevor was near. It righted itself quickly, and she smiled.

She may not have gotten any answers, but at least she knew she’d gone in the right direction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. The prime angst chapter so far.  
> Nick's family is, as you might guess, going to be relevant. This is a story about family, now that i look at it.  
> Rose is on her detective shenanigans, and while you may not have been able to see exactly what our boys are up to I think it's pretty clear they were not expecting this. I'd call them himbos over it, but i. also neglected to expect Rose's behaviour. Perhaps I, too, have himbo vibes.  
> Next time, we see exactly what our boys are up to.


	8. Let Me Introduce Myself

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex's second meet-cute does not go as well as the first, but at least Willie thinks Alex is attractive in every universe.

Alex went back to Carrie’s house when she got out of school. Luke and Reggie wanted to tag along with her to Nick’s, but Alex felt a little weird about that. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to seeing people who couldn’t see him. But a friend of theirs, in the middle of something awful?

Of course, he wished he’d gone with the others about two seconds after he poofed into the house, because he heard people talking and spun around to see Bobby talking to Rose.

“Oh, no,” Alex said, stumbling into the table and nearly knocking a book off. He caught it, gently setting it back, and then looked up just in time to meet Rose’s eyes.

“This is bad,” Alex said unnecessarily, and he left the house.

“Ok,” he said, upon arriving somewhere in the middle of the city. He didn’t bother to check for landmarks, because it didn’t _matter_ , he just needed to not be where anybody could notice him because apparently Rose could notice him. “Ok, this is fine. She just… looked around. She didn’t see you. She probably just saw the book that floated. I’m in trouble.”

Rose probably knew about ghosts, since she’d known about magic way back in the nineties when she helped Carrie and Flynn. Alex had no idea how her powers worked. For all he knew, she’d known he was there, or that Reggie had been in her kitchen earlier. Was she trying to find out more about them? Was this something about Carrie, instead?

What would happen if she asked Carrie what was going on? Would they have to tell Rose the truth about her sickness – the fact that she should have died?

“Whoa!”

Alex was startled out of his panic spiral by a skateboard abruptly coming to a stop almost on top of him. He swallowed, meeting the skateboarder’s gaze.

It was Willie.

“Glad I figured out you were a ghost,” Willie said. “I almost thought you were a lifer, that would’ve been bad.” Willie frowned, taking a closer look at Alex.

“Are you ok?” he asked.

Alex realised he’d been staring.

“Um,” he managed. “Sorry. It’s… been a bad day. You, um…”

The only words springing to mind were _You come here often_ , which was possibly the most embarrassing thought Alex had ever had.

They’d been through this once before. Five minutes of Willie not knowing him, that had been bad enough. But this…

“Anyway, I’ll see you around?” Willie said after another minute of awkward silence.

“Wait!” Alex blurted. “I mean… Sorry. It’s fine.”

Willie tucked his board under one arm and stepped closer to Alex. Alex’s breath hitched, which was especially unfair because he was only breathing in the first place because of his panic attack.

“Doesn’t look fine,” Willie said. “New to the whole ghost thing or something?”

“Or something,” Alex said, his voice slowly returning. “I just… What do you think we do, when we move on?”

Willie laughed in surprise, taking a step back. Alex curled his hands into fists to keep from reaching out for him.

“You’re gonna ask somebody you just met a question like that? I usually save the existential crises for a second or third date,” Willie said.

“Ok,” Alex said, like an idiot. Willie smiled at him, looking both pleased and puzzled.

“For you, I’ll make an exception,” he said. “You look like you need it.”

That was probably the safest answer Willie could have given him, considering Alex had no idea how he was supposed to make it through two or three dates with his boyfriend who’d never met him.

“And I mean, nobody really knows,” Willie continued. “But I’ve heard of dead people who affect the world even after they’ve passed on. I think it’s just a legend people tell to make themselves feel better about crossing over, but…”

“No,” Alex murmured. “I’ve seen it.”

Willie stared at him for a moment, obviously debating whether or not he should ask. Then he shrugged.

“Anyway, I don’t know anybody who’s passed on, and I don’t really plan to,” he said. “I’ve got all I need.”

Alex forced a smile, trying not to think about what this version of Willie had. Like Caleb. Or a stolen soul.

“Alex!”

Alex turned just in time for Luke and Reggie to tackle him in a hug.

“Dude, when you weren’t at Carrie’s we got so worried!” Luke said.

“Oh, hi, Willie,” Reggie said as Alex gently removed himself from his friends’ grip. All traces of a smile dropped off Willie’s face, and he looked between Alex and his friends.

“Do I know you?” he said.

“No! No, wow, _your_ name is Willie? I thought –“ Reggie seemed to realise how ridiculous that was as a line of defense and closed his mouth.

“We know somebody, she’s got this… magic,” Luke said hastily, elbowing Reggie. “About meeting people? That’s how we heard your name.”

That was possibly the shortest and most misleading summary of their time since first leaving limbo that Alex could have ever conceived of, and it didn’t quite make Willie drop his guard, but he didn’t look as likely to flee.

“Really? You don’t meet a lot of people with magic anymore,” he said.

“Wait, that’s funny, because we know three –“

“Reg, stop it,” Alex hissed. He trusted Willie with everything. But he didn’t trust Caleb with Rose, Julie, or Flynn. 

Willie stiffened slightly, like something had just occurred to him. He smiled at Alex, who could tell it was forced. Alex hadn’t seen Willie wear a smile so fake in months.

“Alex, right?” he said.

“Yeah,” Alex said, his voice wobbling.

“You’re kind of a weird guy, but… I’ll see you around, right?”

“Sure, definitely,” Alex said quickly.

Willie nodded.

“I have, uh… connections at this nightclub? Ghosts like us,” he said. He seemed ready to go, but he didn’t set down his skateboard – he’d be poofing away then, and Alex would lay good money on him poofing straight to Caleb. “Maybe you could get some better answers there?”

It was maybe the only way Alex was going to get to talk to Willie again.

“Maybe,” he said. Willie grinned at him, some of the sincerity returned to his face, and disappeared.

“Dude!” Reggie exclaimed, hitting Alex lightly on the shoulder. Alex groaned, tilting his head back to stare at the sky.

“I know,” he said.

“So Willie definitely doesn’t remember us, and he’s with Caleb, who probably does,” Luke said.

“You saw the way he jerked,” Alex said. “Caleb called him. I bet Willie’s on a tighter leash than he even realises.”

“So how do we get him out?” Reggie asked.

“First we should probably make a plan to get _in_ ,” Luke said.

“Man, I really thought we were gonna be done with that place,” Reggie said plaintively. Alex could only nod in agreement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyyy you didn't think I'd leave Willie out of this for long, did you? Everybody gets a partner who doesn't remember dating them. Oops.  
> I don't think I have many things to say here, except hey guess what i'm not quite done with the suffering? You all knew that already, though.  
> Coming up, Willie isn't quite sold on this weird cute guy, but he figures Caleb might like to meet him anyway.


	9. A Little Bit Bad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willie is kidnapped, for a good cause.

Carrie arrived back at her house shortly after Luke, Alex, and Reggie did. Luke wasn’t sure if he felt worse about tagging along to her meeting with Nick or leaving before it had finished, but she just gave them a wan half-smile without chewing him and Reggie out about either thing.

That, more than anything, told Luke she was having a really bad time. He hung back as Carrie went up to her room, grabbing Alex and Reggie before they could follow her.

“Maybe we shouldn’t tell her about Willie,” Luke said. “Until we know for sure it’s something to worry about.”

“You remember how keeping this kind of secret literally always goes bad for us?” Alex said.

“What do we even say? ‘Yeah, Willie doesn’t remember us like we thought,’” Reggie said. Alex winced.

“Let’s just… check on her,” Luke said.

Carrie was sitting on her bed when Luke poked his head in.

“Hey,” she said. “Flynn still hates me, and Nick thinks I’m insane, so I think that’s my progress report for the day.”

“She seemed a little worried about you,” Alex offered, sitting next to her.

“I’ve looked in the mirror, I know I look like death,” Carrie said. “I’d worry about me, too. It’s not like it means anything.”

She shook her head, putting on a shaky version of her usual haughty mask.

“Dad’s got some dinner meeting tonight, and I’m going because I’m absolutely not missing out on talking to record execs even if this is the wrong timeline,” Carrie announced. “So I’m going to pretend things are normal for one evening and your job is not to mess that up for me.”

“Are you sure about this?” Alex asked.

“I never say I’m going to do something I’m not sure of,” Carrie said stonily, avoiding any of the boys’ gazes.

“We’ll find something to do,” Luke said, already thinking about how they’d get Willie to take them to the club that night.

“Then go do it,” Carrie said, standing up. “I need to get dressed.”

“Are you sure you’re ok?” Reggie asked as Luke and Alex started to leave. Luke paused halfway through the door.

“Flynn was supposed to come over tonight,” Carrie admitted softly.

“Carrie…” Luke said. She held up a hand.

“I’m fine,” she said. “Go… investigate some ghosts or something.”

That was exactly what Luke had planned, so at least they had permission.

“Willie, hey!”

Willie landed his flip and stopped his momentum, looking around to see the ghost from earlier – Alex – and his two friends.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Alex said, looking absolutely terrified. That seemed like a weird thing for a guy to be when he voluntarily started a conversation, but then again Willie had definitely been terrified of cute boys he’d met. Did Alex think he was cute?

Willie didn’t even know anything about Alex, and he was being ridiculous.

(Did he, though?)

“What’s up?” Willie asked.

“Uh… Those answers, you said somebody might have?” Alex said. “Did you – could you – I’m sorry, this is weird.”

Willie blinked in surprise.

“We should go,” Alex said in an undertone to his friends.

“Dude, no! What are you doing?” the one with the longer hair hissed.

“Look, it’ll just make things worse,” Alex muttered.

“Hey, if you guys are in trouble,” Willie said. “Look, I know somebody who could help.”

The other three ghosts exchanged glances. The one who had said Willie’s name when they met looked nervous, but the other unnamed boy squeezed his hand and he managed a smile.

Alex’s shoulders slumped and he turned back to Willie.

“That would be – that would work,” he said.

“Hey, if you don’t want to,” Willie said. “I won’t force you to do anything.”

“No, I’d love to spend time with you!” Alex blurted. Willie stared at him. The boy with the longer hair hit his forehead with an audible smack.

“Cool,” Willie managed when the gay panic was back down to manageable levels. So he _did_ think Willie was cute.

Why was he being so weird? Was he just also panicking? Did he know something Willie didn’t?

What if their magic friend had some kind of soulmate powers?

 _Stop it, Willie, you don’t even own your soul,_ he told himself.

“So… do you think we could meet him tonight?” the longer-haired one said after a minute.

“Uh, right! Maybe? I should ask,” Willie said. “I… didn’t catch your names, either.”

Alex winced. The two others exchanged another look.

“I’m Luke,” the more talkative one said. “This is my boyfriend, Reggie.”

Reggie gave him a small smile and a wave, but he still looked nervous.

“Reg, you don’t have to come,” Luke said quietly. Willie pretended he couldn’t hear.

“If you’re going, so am I,” Reggie said. He looked at Willie with a wide grin on his face. Willie didn’t know if he believed that smile, but he’d buy it for now, at least until he found out more about these three. “So when do we go?”

“Uh, I can take you there now,” Willie said. “I don’t know if he’ll be able to see you tonight, but you can hang out while I ask.”

“Sure, yeah, that sounds like a great plan,” Alex said, shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Well,” Willie said with a smile. “Come on, then.”

They reappeared at the entrance to the Hollywood Ghost Club. Weirdly, they didn’t seem as enthralled as Willie would have expected. Whatever they were afraid of, even the glitz and glamour of the club couldn’t distract them from it.

“Are… are you good to wait here?” Willie asked, realising that they probably wouldn’t hear any introduction he gave.

“Yeah, this is fine,” Alex said. Luke and Reggie were leaning on the rail, still holding hands, looking around the people below. Willie headed down the stairs, glancing back only once to see Alex’s eyes had followed him. When Alex saw Willie looking, he waved awkwardly before looking away, joining Luke and Reggie at the railing.

Willie stopped in front of Caleb’s dressing room and took a deep breath. When he lifted his hand to knock, the door opened.

“William,” Caleb said.

“Uh, hi,” Willie said. “You remember those ghosts I met earlier? The ones who seemed like they were have an existential crisis or two?”

Caleb raised an eyebrow.

“I suppose you’ll tell me they asked to come here,” he said.

“Uh – yeah, actually,” Willie said. “I mean, I brought it up.”

“These are the boys who knew your name?” Caleb asked. “I must admit, I’m curious how they managed that.”

Willie thought he’d told Caleb that.

“They said they had a friend who could do magic,” he said, not quite daring to point out that this was a reminder. Caleb’s temper had been worse than usual lately, and neither Willie nor any of the others had been able to figure out why.

Caleb smiled thinly. Clearly, he’d caught Willie’s impulse to point out that he’d forgotten. Willie winced, prepared to apologise, but Caleb simply patted him on the cheek.

“How silly of me to forget,” he said. “I don’t suppose they brought their friend?”

Willie shook his head.

“Another time, then,” Caleb said. He lifted his gaze, and his smile grew. “I don’t suppose _that’s_ one of your new friends?”

Willie turned just in time to see Alex pull his head back around the corner.

“I – I told him he could wait, I’m sorry, he’s probably just freaked out a little – the crowd –“ Willie said quickly.

Caleb waved a hand.

“It’s fine, William,” he said. He raised his voice. “You can come out, now.”

Alex stepped slowly back around the corner with a stony expression on his face. His jaw tensed, then relaxed.

“I’m gay,” he said blankly.

Caleb threw back his head and laughed. He settled a hand on Willie’s shoulder and shook his head fondly.

“I can see why William likes you,” he said. “That’s quite the sense of humour you have. I imagine your friends like that about you, too.”

Alex shrugged.

“I’ve got a lot of them,” he said. His eyes flicked to where Caleb was touching Willie’s shoulder, and stayed there.

“So I’ve heard,” Caleb said. “I was surprised to hear anyone knew a magic user anymore.”

Alex’s face flooded with alarm, and a second later he appeared at Willie’s side, tearing him away from Caleb and pulling Willie with him as he poofed back to the club entrance.

“Dude, what happened?” Reggie exclaimed.

“We have to go,” Alex said, and then he was pulling Willie along in his wake again, taking him to a room painted in shades of pink. Willie wrestled his arm away.

“What was _that?_ ” he demanded as Luke and Reggie arrived as well.

“Please don’t freak out,” Alex blurted.

“You – you _kidnapped_ me!”

“Hey, it was for a good cause!” Reggie protested.

“Please stop helping,” Alex said flatly.

The door opened and a girl groaned as she came in.

“That was terrible and didn’t take my mind off _anything_ , and that guy from –“ She paused midway through removing her pink faux fur jacket, staring at Willie.

“What did you three _do_?” she demanded coldly.

"Ehhhhh," came the high-pitched chorus from Willie's inept kidnappers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am. SO sorry about the no update yesterday thing. I kind of had a gay panic that turned into a confession that turned into giddy rambling for four hours until i needed to sleep so. Very sorry but also it was. a good day.  
> (...do you know how HARD it is to write tension and implied sadness when your friend you just confessed a crush to asks how you feel about the word SWEETHEART I'm. Still very gay about it, clearly. Also if you ever read this, hi, I AM giddy just thinking about it thank you for asking, and thank you for braving my "haunting" timelines.)  
> Anyway, next time will definitely be tomorrow because i think i've made it past the worst of the "too queer to function" and it will feature Carrie cleaning up the boys' (but mostly Alex's) mess.


	10. New Favourite Thrills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys apologise to Carrie for the rising shenanigan levels.

Reggie carefully inched behind Luke. Not because he was hiding from Carrie, of course, he just wanted to stand there.

“We can explain,” Alex said. He looked at Luke frantically.

“I mean, we can?” Luke said.

“You’re not gonna like it,” Alex said, looking back at Carrie.

“Is that explanation coming soon, or can I just go back to the club now –“ Willie said.

“No!” Reggie and all three of the others yelled. Carrie grabbed Willie’s wrist, and he froze, staring down at her hand.

“You _are_ a lifer, right?” he said.

“Obviously,” Carrie said. She let go of him slowly.

“Please don’t go,” Alex said roughly. “Not to Caleb.”

Willie looked between Alex and Carrie.

“Why don’t you like him?” Willie asked. “It seemed like you guys had met before.”

“You went to _Caleb_?” Carrie repeated in a strangled voice. Reggie winced. “Are you ok? Is that why Willie’s here?”

“Why do you people keep knowing my name?” Willie asked. He paused, staring at Carrie. “Are you the friend who can do magic?”

“You _told_ him about that?” Carrie exclaimed. Reggie wished he could just close up his ears. He knew why Carrie was upset, but that didn’t make her shrill tone any easier to deal with.

“I’m sorry,” Reggie blurted, reluctantly stepping out from behind Luke. Maybe if he owned up, she’d stop shouting. He really couldn’t take a fight with one of the few friends he had left, not on top of everything else. “It’s my fault. I said Willie’s name.”

Carrie’s face softened, and then she rolled her eyes in that way she did when she wanted to cover up that she’d softened.

“Of course you did,” she said. “I guess I did too, just now, so whatever. You _are_ all ok, right?”

“You know you still haven’t answered my question, right?” Willie asked.

“Can you give us a minute, so we can explain to Carrie what happened?” Alex asked nervously. Reggie felt a little guilty. He had no idea how he would have handled it if it was Julie in that situation, and he felt like he’d probably jumpstarted the whole fiasco by saying Willie’s name.

Willie still looked tense, but he nodded.

“So, what exactly happened?” Carrie asked.

“We kind of…” Luke looked at Alex for support.

“I ran into Willie today,” he said. “Because I freaked out when I came back here and saw your dad and Julie’s mom talking.”

Willie looked like he was trying to follow a particularly confusing sports game. Reggie resisted the urge to try and explain things to him, because honestly Reggie had _lived_ them and wasn’t sure where to begin explaining. It was… a lot.

“Rose was here?” Carrie said quietly.

“Yeah,” Alex said. “I don’t know how long, or what they talked about, but I think she knew I was there.”

Reggie gulped audibly, remembering the way Julie and Rose had both seemed to notice him that morning.

Carrie rubbed her eyes, looking like she was regretting ever asking. Reggie thought that was probably fair.

“Ok, so, then what? How did Caleb get involved?”

“We asked Willie to take us to the Hollywood Ghost Club,” Luke said, already cringing in anticipation.

Carrie’s face went absolutely blank.

“Luke Patterson,” she said. “Are you telling me that you went to the club owned by one of the ghosts who probably _put us_ in the situation we are in now? You are telling me you three are _that stupid_?”

Luke pouted, avoiding her gaze. Reggie shrank back behind him again.

“We’re really sorry, Carrie,” Alex said. “I didn’t know what else to do. If it were Flynn –“

“Well, it’s not Flynn!” Carrie snapped.

Everyone in the room was still and quiet, even Willie.

“Because Flynn’s soul isn’t owned by Caleb,” Carrie said reluctantly. “I’m sorry, Alex, I get it.”

He quirked his lips half-heartedly, like he was trying to remember how to smile.

“How are you going to keep Caleb away?” Carrie asked. “Honestly, I’m surprised he’s not already _here_.”

Reggie and the others looked at each other in alarm. They hadn’t even thought of that, but Caleb would absolutely be able to find them, especially since he had Willie’s soul under his control.

“We need somebody with magic,” Reggie volunteered tentatively. “Right?”

“Will one of you please tell me what your problem is with Caleb? I mean, I know he’s hard to get along with if he decides he doesn’t like you, but –“

“In a minute, Willie,” Carrie said sharply. Alex sent Willie an apologetic glance, but Willie just threw up his hands.

“The _only_ reason I’m not leaving is because I want answers,” he said, the harshest Reggie had ever heard him. Alex just swallowed and nodded, avoiding Willie’s eyes.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said quietly. Willie let out a short, disbelieving laugh, and Reggie flinched. That wasn’t how his friend was supposed to sound.

“The _only_ person who knows about their magic is Rose,” Carrie said, staring Reggie down. Reggie gulped, then set his jaw.

“I know,” he said.

“And if we see Julie?” she asked. “Or if Rose asks for details?”

“Hey,” Luke cut in, taking Reggie’s hand. “It’ll be awful for all of us. But Reggie’s right. And you’re right that whatever Caleb’s reason is for not storming your house right now can’t be a good one.”

“We’re sorry we messed up,” Alex put in softly. “So we have to fix it, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

Carrie pursed her lips, looking at each of their faces. Reggie caught himself sucking in a nervous breath in spite of the whole dead thing.

“Ok,” she said. “This’ll be a fun conversation. ‘Hi, Dad, I know it’s late but can you take me to Julie’s house so I can talk to her mom? Yes, this does have to do with why I’ve been acting so weird, and no, I won’t tell you what the reason is!’”

“You could tell,” Luke offered. “It’s only fair.”

Considering telling Carrie’s dad anything meant telling him his old bandmates were here, that was a pretty big concession on Luke’s part. Reggie squeezed his hand.

“Maybe,” Carrie said. “One terrible conversation at a time.” She walked out of her room without even glancing back to see if the boys were following. Alex hesitated, looking at Willie, but he just shoved his hands into his pockets and followed Carrie. Luke started to as well, but Reggie let go of his boyfriend’s hand and gestured for him to go on without Reggie.

“We really don’t want to hurt you,” Reggie said to Willie.

“Your friend kind of kidnapped me,” Willie said.

“There’s never been a moment where you didn’t trust Caleb?” Reggie asked. “Because, fine, Willie. If that’s the case go back. We don’t want to keep you somewhere you don’t want to be. That’s about the opposite of what we’ve always wanted for you, especially Alex.”

A little of the suspicion leaked from Willie’s gaze, and a little more curiosity unfurled.

“But I think you know what Caleb is capable of, and that he doesn’t care if you came with us on purpose or not,” Reggie said. “And it’s also pretty obvious that we’re all a bunch of idiots when Carrie or Julie or Flynn aren’t around.”

“Who’s Julie?” Willie asked. “And Flynn?”

Reggie sighed. He hadn’t really meant to mention them, but he got on autopilot.

“That’s… part of the explanation,” he said. “Julie’s our girlfriend, Luke’s and mine. Flynn is –“

Should he have said ‘was’?

“She’s Carrie’s girlfriend,” Reggie finished.

“So when Alex compared me to her…” Willie said.

“Hey, come on! They’re leaving without us, and we don’t want to be here alone when Caleb tracks us down!” Reggie said quickly, because he was not having _that_ conversation alone, and he all but pushed Willie out of the room and down the stairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, you create Willex angst from Reggie's point of view, adding Reggie angst in there as a matter of course, and then Carrie angst jumps out at you, and by the end of it you're just glad you got some good old dream team vibes out of Reggie and Willie even if it's the absolute weirdest context. I changed my mind on where they were going with this conversation like eight times. I'm so glad these kids do what they want because wow I had only the vaguest of plans.  
> Next time: Julie and Flynn are absolutely there, it was a late homework night, and Carrie has to distract them while Rose gets a little more of that adventure she was after.


	11. How You'd Like to Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie attempts something. Rose learns a little more.

Julie opened the door when the bell rang. To her surprise, Carrie was on her doorstep.

“Julie!” Carrie said with a smile that wouldn’t have been out of place in a horror movie. “And Flynn’s here, great,” she added through gritted teeth as Flynn came up behind Julie.

“It is my house,” Julie pointed out.

“Ha! Yes, it certainly is.” Carrie forced out a laugh and clapped her hands together, her eyes flicking to the side like she was planning an escape route. “We – I was hoping to talk to your mom?”

“My mom,” Julie said. She glanced at Flynn, who shrugged. “Carrie, what is all this about? This is the third time you’ve shown up at my house in two days, and you made it pretty clear a long time ago that you were never coming back.”

Carrie’s head jerked in alarm, and she stared past Flynn’s shoulder for a moment with a look of utter betrayal.

Julie waved her hand in front of Carrie’s face.

“Carrie…” she prompted. Carrie scowled and batted Julie’s hand away like nothing had ever happened.

“Ok, fine, I don’t need to talk to your mom, I… need to talk to you,” she said, and at least she’d said ‘need’ and not ‘want’ because this might be the most reluctant to talk Carrie had ever sounded.

Julie folded her arms, but stepped aside to let Carrie in. Carrie hesitated before she came in, to Julie’s surprise. Yet another thing on the list of “things that have been weird about Carrie.”

“So what do you want?” Flynn asked, not as harshly as Julie might have expected, but then again Flynn had told her about how weird Carrie had been that morning.

“I want to apologise,” Carrie said. Julie desperately wanted to say something, but she had no idea what to say. Did Carrie even know what she needed to apologise for?

“Ok,” Flynn said. “So do it.”

Carrie met Flynn’s eyes for the first time that night.

“I thought you and Julie always chose each other over me, and I decided that meant neither of you wanted me at all, and that wasn’t fair. Also, I kept acting like you get everything handed to you two, and I know that’s not fair when my dad is who he is and I’m white and rich, and I know I never see you working but that doesn’t mean I should assume it’s not happening. So I’m sorry about… all of that.”

So Carrie did know. Julie still didn’t think she trusted her, though – who apologised that way? Like she was checking off a list?

“Ok, who told you to say that?” Flynn asked. Carrie took a step back, startled.

“I – no one,” she said. “I wanted to.”

“Then why do you sound like you’d made a list?” Julie said. “Look, Carrie, I appreciate you saying all that, but how am I supposed to believe you? It’s like this came out of nowhere, and after the way you’ve been these last few years…”

“You don’t trust me,” Carrie said. “Right, no, that makes sense. You haven’t seen a single thing to tell you I could change.”

“Carrie…” Julie said. She wasn’t wrong, but there was something so weird about the way she said it.

“No, Julie, it’s fine, I just – you don’t know me anymore. And I don’t know what I need to say to you to make it better.” Carrie looked at Flynn again, opened her mouth, then closed it.

“I should just go,” Carrie said. “Thanks for hearing me out. I know it wasn’t exactly the world’s greatest apology.”

She left before Julie could think of a single thing to say.

Flynn groaned.

“Carrie, wait!” she called, sending an apologetic glance at Julie, who shrugged. She wanted to know what was happening, too, and if Flynn thought she could find out…

Flynn ran out the door after Carrie, and Julie sighed.

So much for homework night.

Luke felt a little bad about leaving Carrie behind as the distraction, but he didn’t want Julie or Flynn walking in on them trying to communicate with Rose. It was bad enough they didn’t know where Ray or Carlos was.

And if there was a little voice saying he did it because he wasn’t ready to see Julie, he didn’t have to admit that out loud.

He and Reggie started to look around, Reggie keeping one hand around a reluctant Willie’s wrist, while Alex poofed to the studio to check and see if she was there.

“Found her,” Alex said, arriving back at Luke’s side. He looked at Willie. “Look, I… Please don’t tell Caleb about her.”

Willie didn’t reply.

“Come on,” Luke said, eager to save Alex from the widening gap between him and Willie. “Let’s go talk to Rose.”

She was in the middle of writing something on staff paper when the boys arrived, but she paused as though she’d been expecting them.

“I felt you earlier,” she said. “You brought friends?”

“Dude, do you see any paper anywhere?” Luke hissed.

“I mean, she’s got some,” Reggie offered, pointing at where Rose was.

“Dude! That’s for music!” Luke said, maybe a little more offended than he should be at the idea of using staff paper as scrap paper. Reggie raised his hands in mock-defensiveness. Luke realised he didn’t know where Willie was.

“Here,” Willie said before Luke could panic, passing him a notebook and pen. Luke swallowed, realising it was Julie’s. They’d written Stand Tall in this very journal.

“Are you going to get on with it?” Willie asked. Luke tried to smile at him. Willie was genuinely trying, and he hadn’t run off yet. It was just… hard being back at Julie’s with a version of his friend who didn’t even trust them – who didn’t even trust his own _boyfriend_. Luke could only imagine how Alex was doing.

“Right, yeah,” Luke said, approaching Rose at the piano. She waited on the bench with a faint smirk, eyeing the pen and notebook.

“It’s been a long time since I met any ghosts,” she said. “The last one I met didn’t like my _tía_ so well, and I think word got out about my family.”

Luke paused, looking back at the others.

“I really wanna know that story,” he admitted.

“Focus,” Alex advised.

“Right, uh…” Luke turned back to Rose, and then remembered he was the worst choice of spokesperson. “Hey, Alex? Your handwriting’s nicer than mine.”

“Right, yeah,” Alex said, quickly switching places with Luke.

“Tell her… tell her we need to hide from an evil ghost,” Luke said. “Let’s just… cut to the chase.”

“Evil ghost?” Willie repeated.

Rose watched as Alex scribbled down a version of the night’s events, her brow furrowing as she read more.

“I – I think I can do something for you, for now,” she said hesitantly. “But this… I don’t have much power over ghosts at all.”

“Yeah, that’s what Carrie and Flynn said,” Luke sighed.

Rose sighed, looking around the studio like she was trying to spot them.

“Where’s your friend, the one I need to shield?” she asked. “I can’t touch him, but I think, maybe if I play, I could make it work. I’m sorry I can’t make this permanent, but you need someone who specialises in death.”

Luke flinched.

“Yeah, we know,” Alex murmured, not bothering to write it down.

Rose waited a few more seconds to see if they’d add anything, then started to play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um sorry? Carrie was thinking more about the what of her apology, trying to hit everything that made sense in this timeline that she'd already said or been told, without thinking about why Flynn and eventually Julie actually forgave her. sometimes it's like that.  
> And Rose! We'll get more resolution tomorrow but for now I have to post and then run away so. just know that next time we will be following up on both scenes! yay!


	12. Listen to the Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn demands answers, and gets maybe more than she planned.

“Carrie!” Flynn called again, jumping down the porch steps. She couldn’t believe she was doing this.

“What, Flynn?” Carrie snapped, whirling around. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I’m terrible and I’m sorry you don’t believe me. I shouldn’t have come here. I didn’t need to, nobody –“ She cut herself off.

“Why does this matter so much all of a sudden?” Flynn asked.

“Because I love you and you don’t even remember,” Carrie said.

It took Flynn a minute to even process what Carrie had said.

“What?” she managed. Carrie sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear.

“You’re going to think I’m insane,” she said.

“At this point I kind of already do,” Flynn pointed out, which maybe wasn’t the best thing to say but it was all she had.

“Ugh,” Carrie said. “Fine. Everything else is already such a mess, and we have to tell Willie anyway…”

“Who’s Willie? Who’s _we_?” Flynn asked.

“Where’s Rose?” Carrie asked.

“I thought you were going to explain –“

“I’m only doing this once, Flynn!” Carrie covered her mouth, clearly trying to calm herself down.

“She’s in the studio,” Flynn said slowly. “Come on.”

As Flynn and Carrie approached, Flynn heard Rose playing a song she’d never heard before. Something about it seemed… off. Like it wasn’t just the piano playing, even though that was all Flynn heard.

“That should hold for now,” Rose said when she’d finished, as Flynn opened the door. Flynn looked around but couldn’t see who Julie’s mom had been talking to.

“Flynn!” Rose said. “Carrie? What… Julie’s not with you?”

“You were talking to the guys, right?” Carrie said. Flynn turned her head slowly, wondering what on _earth_ Carrie was talking about.

Rose sighed.

“I was wondering,” she said. “And Flynn, whatever this is, you know about it?”

“No,” Flynn said. “That’s kind of the problem.”

Carrie looked at the space by the piano, biting her lip.

“This would be so much easier if Julie were here,” she muttered.

“Do you… want me to go get her?” Flynn asked.

“No!” Carrie shouted. “No, that’s – that’s not what I meant. Ok.” She took a deep breath.

“Ghosts are real,” she said. “And so is magic.”

Flynn scoffed, looking to Rose for help, but Rose just watched Carrie like she was still waiting for the explanation. When Julie’s mom caught Flynn looking, she smiled crookedly.

“It is true,” she said. “Magic runs in my family.”

Carrie tensed, looking at that same spot by the piano again. She looked like she wanted to say something, but then she relaxed.

“Carrie?” Rose asked gently.

“Sorry,” she said. “Uh – there’s this ghost who has magic, and he doesn’t exactly… like competition. We just don’t want him to know about you.”

Rose frowned.

“Carrie, what have you gotten mixed up in?” she said sternly.

“It’s going to sound ridiculous for a while,” Carrie said. “But I swear, it’ll make sense. Just… let me get through it, ok?”

She stared directly at Flynn when she said it. Flynn swallowed and nodded. She’d said she wanted to know what was up with Carrie.

“Julie… started a band with a bunch of ghosts,” Carrie said.

“Pretty sure I would have noticed,” Flynn said. “Also, still not convinced ghosts are real.”

There was a tapping noise, and Flynn turned to see a pen hitting the top of the piano of its own accord.

“Ok, ghosts,” Flynn said. “But Julie? She can’t lie about not doing her homework!”

“She’s not hiding anything, Flynn, just let me finish!” Carrie said, so fast it was like she was afraid she wouldn’t get the words out otherwise. “Look, the ghosts here – three of them, they’re Julie’s band. Luke, Reggie, and Alex.”

Rose gasped softly, half-standing.

“Sunset Curve,” she said quietly. A bright, staccato chord played on the piano, and Carrie laughed.

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, that’s them. And the other ghost is Willie. He’s… a little more complicated.”

As Carrie talked, Flynn found herself more and more disbelieving. The way Carrie told it, the past six or so months had been almost entirely different, with Julie forming a band that actually played the Orpheum within a month of their first show? It was compelling, and totally believable that Julie could do it, but Flynn had _been there_. None of it had happened.

“And then they found out time travel was also real,” Carrie said. “And, that’s where I come in, Flynn, you and I accidentally ended up meeting the band when they were still alive and playing with my dad, and there was this whole thing where I was kind of a ghost for a while because we accidentally killed my dad, and that’s why I can see and touch you guys, by the way, Willie.”

“You are rambling worse than Julie right now, because at least Julie rambles about real things,” Flynn said. Carrie paused, looking at Flynn with disappointment.

“All those things I said tonight, that you couldn’t trust,” Carrie said. “They really were things I learned the hard way. Things you told me, half the time. I know you don’t remember any of this happening, but if I was going to lie, it wouldn’t be to you, and it wouldn’t be this hard to believe.”

Something – a ghost, Flynn supposed – pulled Carrie’s attention away.

“Yeah,” she said. “Yeah, Caleb almost definitely knows what we did before everything changed.”

“What?” Flynn asked, because it seemed like she’d still missed something.

“Time travel,” Carrie said. “Look, these two ghosts, Ava and Caleb, we think they changed… something. So Julie never met the guys, and none of that ever happened. But they know, and that’s why Alex couldn’t leave you at the club, Willie.”

Flynn realised that maybe it wasn’t just her and Rose that Carrie had been pleading with. Actually, Rose seemed to have taken all this in stride.

“You haven’t said anything since I started talking,” Carrie said to Rose, apparently noticing the same thing Flynn had. “Are – Do you believe me?”

“I – Of course, I’ve had some adventures of my own,” Rose said. “Never involving time travel, but everything you’ve said matches what I know about ghosts. When did you and your friends find out I could do magic?”

“We’re really going with _time travel_?” Flynn asked.

“I – A lot of people have magic, apparently,” Carrie said.

Rose smiled knowingly.

“Julie,” she said. “That would explain how she could make her band visible.”

Flynn’s throat felt like it was closing. It was bad enough Julie’s mom was suddenly, what, best friends with Carrie? And they were here talking about all sorts of crazy things, _understanding_ each other when Flynn was still struggling to keep pace.

And Julie was supposed to be in on this big, magic secret, too?

Flynn searched for something, some question that wouldn’t have an answer that made her feel completely lost. The very first thing Carrie had said to her when she demanded the truth popped back into her head.

“What did you mean when you said you loved me?” Flynn asked. A loud, dissonant chord came from the piano like somebody’s elbow had slipped.

“Oh, like any of you are handling this any better than me,” Carrie snapped. “At least I didn’t kidnap her!”

“Ok, _what_?” Flynn asked. Rose looked incredibly worried.

“It’s fine, don’t worry about it,” Carrie said. “Just… ghost stuff. Nobody’s – Everybody’s fine.”

That sounded suspiciously like the opposite of fine, but Flynn still hadn’t gotten her answer.

“Carrie, what did you mean?” Flynn asked again.

“There aren’t exactly a lot of ways to take something like that,” Carrie said. “But – fine. When we had our little… adventure, I grew up. We talked things out. And I… You’re so cool when you’re wearing rainbow leopard print _lycra_ , and playing the _trombone_ , because you just go out there and do things that you care about. You make me want to stop caring about what other people think, Flynn, and I have spent my whole life doing nothing but that. Yes, I love you, and in the other timeline we were dating. I didn’t want to tell you because I know you don’t owe me anything. I just… I can’t live with you hating me, not when I know what it’s like for you to care.”

Flynn opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She didn’t know what she had wanted to say, anyway.

Nobody had ever told her anything like that. Julie came close, maybe, but that was always a song or poem. For something so blunt and open and _loving_ to come from Carrie…

“I think it’s time your ghost friends and I leave you alone,” Rose said gently.

A second later, Carrie turned her head sharply towards the piano, saying “If any of you says a single thing right now, I will figure out how to double-murder you.”

Flynn clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her surprised laugh. Carrie looked back at her with a smile like she was proud of herself.

“I believe you,” Flynn said.

Carrie took a step towards Flynn like she was about to run to her, then froze. Flynn carefully lifted her arms, unable to bring herself to ask Carrie out loud. Carrie’s smile trembled, and then she seized Flynn in a tight hug that left a few teardrops on Flynn’s shoulder.

Flynn wouldn’t tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Julie's absolutely sitting in the house going "Wow ok I guess Flynn and Carrie have a lot to talk about... I guess maybe Carrie meant it? Or maybe Flynn is egging her house right now. Hard to tell." She's probably about three seconds away from blowing Flynn's phone up with texts. Poor Julie.  
> There's a couple of things that Carrie left out, you'll notice, and not just the truth about Rose - will the various time travel adventures she didn't talk about come back up again? Oh, almost definitely, I do this on purpose.  
> You may be wondering what's up on the ghost end of things, and that's next time for you! We get to see how Willie's dealing with the revelations of the night, and where he and Alex are at as far as the whole "alternate timeline boyfriend reveal" goes. Maybe someday the lifers will finally get to sleep, I think we've been on the same day since chapter six or something.


	13. Got What You Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Willie visit a museum, and nobody screams but everybody wants to.

Alex had been trying not to stare at Willie, but in the awkward silence as Carrie and Flynn hugged he couldn’t resist the urge. Willie was hugging himself around the middle, bringing back memories of that time he’d shown up at the studio only to tell Alex they never should have met.

_No, don’t. It’s not the same._

It was worse, but that wasn’t a helpful thought either. Willie glanced over at Alex, and Alex forced a smile.

“Are you ok?” Alex asked him. “I know it’s a lot.”

“A lot,” he said. Willie laughed, and Alex could tell it took him a lot of effort just to keep the sound light. “So we – we were friends.”

Alex rubbed the back of his neck. He loved Willie. They’d taken crazy risks for each other, lived together (for lack of a better word) for months, been through the worst and best things Alex had ever experienced.

“Yeah, we – we were close.”

Willie opened his mouth, then took a step back. Alex waited, knowing Willie well enough that he was pretty sure Willie wanted to know if they’d been something other than friends.

“So… I didn’t stay with Caleb?” Willie asked. “How’d I get away? That girl, Julie – the one who answered the door. She helped?”

Luke slipped and hit the keyboard again. Carrie, Flynn, and Rose all jumped. Alex winced. He hadn’t realised Luke was listening, or even that Willie would ask something like that.

“Dad’s waiting outside,” Carrie said. “I should go. Do you guys…”

“Yeah, I’ll come,” Luke said quickly. He sent a pleading glance at Reggie.

“Willie? Alex?” Reggie asked.

“I think I need a minute,” Willie said.

“Do you – I could tell you more,” Alex offered hesitantly. He couldn’t tell if that would push Willie away; he knew Willie was uncomfortable with him after the stunt he pulled earlier that night. To his surprise, Willie nodded.

“Ok,” he said.

As Carrie informed Rose and Flynn that the ghosts were leaving, too, and begged them not to tell Julie for now unless they had a _really_ good plan to get her to believe them, Alex offered Willie his hand.

Willie met his eyes warily, but whatever he saw in Alex must have reassured him enough to take Alex’s hand. Alex closed his eyes, trying not to think about the original first time he held Willie’s hand, and poofed them away to the first safe place he thought of.

Willie laughed, pulling away from Alex to look around the room.

“You’re a cultured guy, huh?” he said. “Art museums?”

“Yeah, well…” Alex didn’t have a good answer, so he stuck his hands in his pockets and waited for Willie to be ready to ask his questions.

“Did we meet here?” Willie asked. “Or did I take you? I mean, I _love_ skating this place. There’s no way this is a coincidence.”

Alex froze. He could totally keep his breath steady; he didn’t even need to breathe. _Stay calm, Alex_ , he told himself.

“What? No, of course it’s a coincidence,” he said.

 _Smooth_.

“I’m sorry,” Alex said quickly, trying to cover it up. He really didn’t know how Carrie had kept it together, talking to Flynn like that. He wasn’t ready for Willie to reject him the way he knew Willie would.

“What for?” Willie asked. “I mean, if you’re telling the truth about Caleb you did me a favour, right?”

That was a challenge and they both knew it.

“I’m sorry we left your skateboard behind,” Alex said, because that was what he’d meant anyway. Willie stiffened, staring at Alex like he’d never seen him before. He shakily tucked a strand of hair behind his ear.

“I get it,” he said.

“I know how much it means to you,” Alex said. “I shouldn’t have – everything I did tonight was stupid.”

“Yeah, maybe, but there’s a long history of stupid in the world,” Willie said. “I died skating in traffic.”

Alex laughed softly.

“I do wish you had your board,” he said.

“Me too,” Willie said. He sighed and sat down on the very same bench he and Alex had moved together. “What did Caleb do after you escaped? After the Orpheum? How did I…”

He frowned for a moment, before looking back up at Alex with a bright, open expression. Alex tried to pretend he didn’t see the nervous tapping of Willie’s thumb against the edge of the bench.

“Apparently what Caleb did was possess Nick,” Alex said. “Which we didn’t know about for a while. The time travel came first.”

He explained the rest of the story to Willie, from Julie and Reggie and Willie himself waking up in a world where Luke and Alex never died, to Julie discovering her magic at Caleb’s club, to Willie forgetting him.

“So I do that to you a lot, huh?” Willie asked with a grin.

“Not exactly like I could blame you,” Alex said. “It wasn’t really your call.” Willie’s smile faded slightly, and he looked away. Alex didn’t know what he’d said to upset Willie, but he cursed himself for it just the same.

“So what do we do when Rose’s spell wears off?” Willie asked finally. “Do you know somebody who… what was it? Who specialises in death?”

“I know a couple people whose powers work on ghosts,” Alex said. “Caleb. Flynn, if she cares about the ghosts and considers them friends.”

“Flynn’s got magic?” Willie said, looking impressed. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Alex said. He sat heavily on the opposite end of the bench, tipping his head back to stare at the ceiling. “But our best bet, if we were in the right timeline, would be Julie.”

“Why?”

Alex slowly pulled his head upright.

“The way Rose explained it to Carrie and Flynn, magic is about what’s important to you,” he said. “So Caleb likes control. Flynn values friendship. I think Rose is all about opportunity or freedom or something like that.”

“And Julie’s power… specialises in death,” Willi finished. “Because of you?”

Alex stared down at his lap. It felt like forever since he’d held a pair of drumsticks. He wasn’t cut out for all this adventuring, and he knew what Reggie had meant when he’d said he was tired.

“She cares about ghosts,” Alex said. “She cares about the dead. I don’t know if that would be true here, so I don’t even know if I know anything about her.”

Julie was one of Alex’s best friends; Julie was a complete stranger to him.

“Hey,” Willie said. When had he moved to kneel in front of Alex? “Hey, take a breath. With me, ok? With me, here.”

He guided Alex’s hand to the centre of his chest and exaggerated the movement of his ribs as he breathed in and out steadily.

“Sorry,” Alex said when he’d pulled himself together enough to talk. “I – that was dumb. We don’t even need to breathe, I could’ve just –“

“Dude, it’s fine,” Willie said. “You may not need to breathe, but the habit sticks. A lot of habits do.”

Alex realised Willie had moved his hand off Alex’s, but Alex still held his hand against Willie’s chest. He snatched it away hastily.

“Yeah,” he said hoarsely. “I know what you mean.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear it's still today for another hour where I'm at. If you read this in February, well, you have two chapters today so yay?  
> I honestly thought Willie would be angrier but apparently he can't stay mad at Alex. This boy is far more well-adjusted than I, I'd be reading Alex the riot act about now. Anyway, have some sweet angst because I'm in a weird mood and enjoying the heck out of my rare no-bedtime evening.  
> Next time, we check in with our other ghost boys, in addition to finally learning how Rose feels about all this.


	14. Nothing to Lose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke breaks down a little. Rose makes a phone call.

Luke managed to stay in the car with Carrie and Bobby for about a minute before he couldn’t take it anymore and poofed straight back to the Wilson’s ridiculously oversized home. Reggie followed him a second later.

“Luke?” he asked tentatively. Luke didn’t have anything he wanted to say, not without potentially lashing out at Reggie, so he kept quiet, staring at the award on Bobby’s wall for “My Name Is Luke.”

“Luke,” Reggie said again. “Please.”

“I miss Julie,” Luke admitted. “I – It’s stupid.”

“Luke, if you’re trying to tell me that missing our girlfriend is stupid, you’ve got even bigger problems,” Reggie said. Luke almost laughed.

“Sorry,” he said, finally tearing his eyes away from the records on the wall. He collapsed on Carrie’s couch, wishing it was crumbling fake leather with busted old springs instead, the shape of his living body still worn into it after all this time, along with the memories of years Julie spent on that same couch. Memories of all of them, squished together no matter how many perfectly useful chairs were in the room. But it was pale faux suede, cleaned and sturdy and personality-less like so much in Bobby’s house. Luke sometimes wondered how the guy he knew made it here, plagiarism aside.

“Talk to me,” Reggie said, sitting next to Luke.

“Bro, it’s fine,” Luke said.

“I’m not that stupid, Luke,” Reggie said drily.

“You’re not stupid at all!” Luke exclaimed, bolting upright and ready to fight on Reggie’s behalf. He rolled his eyes when he saw Reggie’s tiny smile.

“Ok, fine, I respect your intelligence,” Luke said. “I miss Julie, but part of me can’t help – it’s like I’m glad we haven’t had to talk to her. I mean, if I was Carrie right now? Or Alex? If I had to talk to Julie and know she hated me…”

“Flynn doesn’t hate Carrie,” Reggie said. “They hugged. And I don’t think Willie could hate anybody.” He leaned against Luke, who automatically lifted his arm to pull Reggie closer. “I _know_ Julie couldn’t.”

“I don’t want her to look through me, either,” Luke admitted.

“Yeah,” Reggie said. “Julie sees us, and not just because of the ghost thing.”

He should have known Reggie would get it.

“She deserves to know,” Luke said. “I know that. It’s her _mom_. We’re asking her mom and her best friend to keep this secret from her? I mean, bro, that’s…”

“The worst thing we could do?” Reggie asked. “Look, if you wanna tell Julie I’m ready. I don’t want to hide from her.”

“I don’t want to tell anybody else until we figure out what to say about Rose,” Luke said. “Flynn will want to know what’s changed. I bet Rose and Willie will, too. I don’t – Bro, I _really_ don’t want to be the one to tell Julie that truth.”

Reggie’s shoulders slumped.

“We have to,” he said, though from the sound of it he didn’t want to say anything any more than Luke did.

“Yeah, I know,” Luke said. “But how?”

“Hey, Julie, don’t freak out but we’re ghosts, and that’s why this message is writing itself,” Reggie suggested. “Also we’re from a timeline where your mom died, but we totally want to find a way around that!”

“Hi, Julie, I’m your dead boyfriend from another timeline and I swear I don’t want to kill your mom,” Luke added.

“This would be a lot funnier without the mom thing,” Reggie observed. Luke snorted.

“Rose didn’t say much when Carrie was talking,” he said. “I know she said she believed us, but… Do you think she noticed Carrie held a lot back?”

“I don’t know,” Reggie said. “She is _Julie’s_ mom. I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“Yeah,” Luke agreed. He leaned his head against Reggie’s, and they waited for their friends to come back in mournful silence.

Rose helped Flynn and Julie finish up their homework and got Flynn home safely, and when she came back to the house, she found Julie half-asleep on the couch.

“Julie,” she said softly. “ _Mija_ , you’re not sleeping out here. Come on.”

Julie mumbled something as she let her mother guide her to the stairs.

“Did you talk to Carrie?” Julie asked her mother. Rose paused.

“A little,” she said.

“She was really weird tonight,” Julie said. “And Flynn said Carrie talked to her, but it was private.”

Rose was honestly a little surprised Flynn had kept it all quiet, but she couldn’t say she was upset.

“Are you worried?” Rose asked.

Julie shook her head.

“I mean, maybe?” Julie yawned. “But I trust Flynn. And sometimes there’s stuff you just don’t tell people. Especially other people’s secrets.” She frowned slightly. “I guess if I’d listened to Carrie better maybe she’d have told me, too.”

“You don’t owe anybody your forgiveness, or your friendship,” Rose said. “And from what Carrie said to me tonight, she knows that. Take your relationship with her at your own pace.”

Maybe things with these ghosts would be easier, if Julie and Carrie made up. But Rose was Julie’s mother, before anything magical, and she knew how hard losing Carrie had been on Julie. She wasn’t going to let her daughter push herself towards a reconciliation she wasn’t ready for.

“Thanks, Mom,” Julie said. “Good night.”

“Good night,” Rose said. She sighed once Julie was out of sight.

She’d stopped running around doing magic for people a long time ago. After Julie was born, Rose had had one too many close shaves, and too many people were eyeing her family in the hopes of finding more magic users. People with Rose’s talents were rare, after all, and everybody who knew about magic knew it ran in Rose’s family.

But the desperation in Carrie’s voice tonight… The immediate trust those ghosts had placed in her, when there tended to be a lot of animosity between ghosts and the magical living… Rose had never been able to push away a good story, or a person who needed help. And she had nobody left to refer these kids to.

Rose sat down at the table and made a phone call.

“Victoria,” she said. “I need someone to talk to.”

“What crazy new plan do you have now?” Victoria asked. “Don’t tell me – you’re starting a podcast now. Or are you finally pitching that television show?”

“Very funny,” Rose said. She sighed. “Some ghosts asked me for help tonight.”

“Rose, if you get involved with demons again, I swear –“

“They’re Trevor’s old band,” Rose said.

“Your friend, Trevor? The one whose daughter hates Julie?” Victoria made a tiny noise of frustration that made Rose smile. At least that remained Rose’s greatest skill, annoying Victoria. “Fine. Fine. Tell me about it. I can give you all my wisdom, and remain grateful the magic skipped me.”

Rose rolled her eyes fondly and told Victoria everything she knew.

Victoria was silent.

“Look, I’m no witch, thank God,” she said. Rose could practically hear Victoria crossing herself, which was always about half serious and half meant to bother Rose. “But I have seen movies, including quite a few time travel movies. Something changed, just one thing, and that made this whole different world, right? So what was it?”

Rose thought back.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But – the way Carrie told the story, Julie dealt with these ghosts all on her own. Victoria, for some reason I wasn’t there.”

The two sisters sat in silence.

“I should have told her about the magic,” Rose said.

“And what, let her live every minute of her life wondering if this will be the passion that gives her power? It’s a waste of time, Rose,” Victoria said. “Either she finds it or she doesn’t, and either way she’s our Julie. If she started a ghost band behind your back, I doubt you took long to find out about it. I also know you’re not about to ask Julie if you think she’ll come to you herself. Now, do I think you could stand to be a little pushier? Absolutely. Eventually even Julie will learn how to lie.”

“Now you’re just projecting,” Rose said.

“We are talking about _you_ ,” Victoria protested, which told Rose that she was absolutely right and had managed to hit a nerve. “Whatever happened in this other world, it’s not your fault.”

“I know _,_ _”_ Rose murmured. “But –“

“Ah!” Victoria cut her off. “Whatever you’re about to say, I don’t want to hear it. I am a genius and there’s no point arguing, Rose.”

“You still haven’t given me any advice,” Rose pointed out.

“Yes, I have, you’re just a bad listener,” Victoria said. “Find out what changed. Honestly, it’s like you’re not the same girl who dragged me to the movies constantly when she was little.”

That wasn’t how Rose remembered it, but it was getting late and if she said anything to contradict Victoria they’d both be up until dawn.

“Good night, Victoria,” Rose said.

“ _Ten cuidado, hermanita,”_ Victoria said.

“I’m always careful,” Rose lied. Victoria laughed at her and hung up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of research I did on Puerto Rican slang terms only to then use the Spanish I know anyway, for that one tiny line... If you're Puerto Rican and you're like "hm this would be more authentic" let me know, but I don't think "be careful, little sister" has too many alternate translations? The most disappointing realisation of my adult life is that my language learning absolutely did not prepare me to write native speakers of said languages, which in an area like mine is about all I'm ever going to use these skills for. Utter betrayal. Sigh.  
> Luke and Reggie out here asking the real questions: how are they supposed to talk to Julie? We all know it has to happen. But also, nobody really wants it to. Ghost band? That's one thing. The sheer amount of danger and nonsense and sadness inherent in this storyline? Oof. Julie, my darling, I'm so sorry.  
> Next time, Nick ponders what little Carrie has told him, and clings to hope.


	15. All Bets on Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick and Rachel visit their mom, and Nick considers the crazy.

Nick helped Rachel undo her seatbelt and watched her scramble out of the car. She was still feeling excited about getting a day off school; she hadn't seen their mom recently enough to know how bad it was.

"You ready?" his dad asked him, noticing Nick had made no move to get out himself.

"Yeah," Nick said, smiling for him.

As they checked in and headed for his mom's room, Carrie's words came back to him.

_Somebody made her get sick._

It was crazy. But then, so was the rapid onset of his mother's illness. So was the fact that nobody was quite sure what it was. So was everything about the situation.

So was the idea of Carrie calling herself Julie and Flynn's friend.

 _Ghosts,_ Carrie had said. That part Nick was really trying not to think about.

"She's awake, but she's been coming in and out of lucidity," Nick heard the nurse say to his dad softly. "I don't know if you'll be able to talk long."

"Thank you," he said, taking Rachel's hand and setting his other hand on Nick's shoulder for a second. "Ok, Rachel, you've got to be gentle with Mom, all right? She's still having a hard time."

"I wanted to show her my jazz routine," Rachel said.

"If you can do it small enough and not break anything," Nick's dad said. Rachel rolled her eyes, but only bounced slightly on her toes as they approached their mother's bed.

"Hi, Mom!" she said.

"Hi, sweetie," Nick's mom said, letting her hand drift off the bed and pat Rachel's cheek. "Nick."

"Hey," he said. "How are you?"

She raised her eyebrows at him.

"As good as I can be, I think," she said.

"Mom, I have a new dance to show you!" Rachel cut in. Nick's mom winked at him.

"Ok, then, show me," she said. Rachel very seriously guided Nick and his dad to the edge of the room and struck a dramatic pose by their mom's bedside. Nick pasted on a smile, letting his thoughts wander as Rachel narrated her every move.

Had Carrie reconciled with Julie and Flynn in the short time since he'd stopped coming to school? Had she done that earlier, and he just hadn't noticed? But she'd talked like they shared friends. Carrie hadn't spoken to Nick since they broke up.

His mom's breath was growing laboured, and Nick fought the urge to drag Rachel away from her show. His sister hadn't noticed, and he didn't want to upset her. His mom wouldn't like it if Rachel stopped on her account, either.

"I'm gonna go get a drink of water," Nick muttered to his dad, slipping out before anybody could stop him.

He leaned against the wall, hoping he was out of the way of any hospital staff that needed to rush by. That would be all he needed, to get in somebody else's way.

He wanted it to be magic so badly. He wanted a solution, an end, a chance to walk in there and just have his mom back. It wasn't selfish, right? If Carrie was telling the truth, if she had a way to heal Nick's mom, then what did anybody have to lose?

He pulled out his phone, letting his thumb hover over Carrie's number. He hadn't texted her since the day they broke up. He'd been meaning to take her number out of his phone, but his mom's sickness had pushed petty things like that out of his mind.

_So if the world is wrong somehow. What happened?_

He didn't expect an answer right away - Carrie was in class - but his phone buzzed almost immediately.

_Would you believe some evil ghosts changed time?_

Nick almost laughed.

_What do you think?_

Carrie's next response took a little longer.

_My house, after school's done. I have visual aid._

Nick swallowed. He wasn't sure what to make of this weird version of Carrie, or her bizarre stories, or the idea of ghosts.

"Nick," his dad said softly. "Your mom's fading. You want to talk to her a little before we head out?" Nick smiled for his dad.

"Yeah," he said. "Thanks. I just... didn't want to get in Rachel's way."

"You missed my big jump," Rachel said, pouting as Nick re-entered the room.

"Sorry, Rach," he said. "Hey, Mom."

"How are you, sweetheart?" she asked him as he took her hand. It felt thin in his grasp.

"I'm ok," he said.

"Well, see if they let you bring your guitar next time, I want to hear you play," she said. Her eyes fluttered closed, then she opened them again. "I'm sorry I'm so tired, I wanted to talk to you more."

"It's ok," Nick said. He kissed his mom's forehead. "I love you."

"I love you too, Nick," she said.

Nick glanced back at his mom just before he left. She was already asleep.

In the car, he pulled out his phone and sent one last text, not to Carrie but to Flynn, whose number he'd kept from a group project a while back.

_Has Carrie said anything weird to you lately?_

Flynn's was the name that seemed to hurt Carrie the most, when she'd talked to Nick yesterday. He figured if anybody had seen Carrie's weirdness firsthand, apart from him, it would be her.

 _Why?_ came Flynn's answering text.

Nick hesitated.

_This is going to sound crazy but what do you know about ghosts?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case we didn't have enough mom angst, here comes Nick's storyline back at it with the angst. Oops  
> Also, Rachel is rapidly becoming my favourite jatp character, I don't know what to tell you. In any case, Nick's got a lot of tiny little development here that I'm very proud of, and he's gonna have Flynn friendship again! Flynn and Nick as friends are excellent.  
> Next time, before we can get to Flynn and Nick, Willie still has a few decisions to make.


	16. An Offer That You Can't Refuse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willie has a lot to process. So does Rose. Reggie just wants some time alone with his thoughts.

Willie went out after Carrie had gone to school the next day. He was pretty sure Alex, Reggie, and Luke didn't want him to, and equally sure they weren't going to do anything to stop him.

He had a lot to think about, and at least the other ghosts seemed to be aware of that.

Willie found himself back at the studio where Carrie had first told her story. The woman - Rose - was seated at the piano, staring at a piece of paper.

She looked up a few seconds after Willie poofed in.

"Come to check on me?" she asked. "Which one are you?"

The pen and paper from last night were still out.

 _Willie,_ he wrote. Rose hummed softly.

"The only one I don't know," she said. "How casual are ghosts, when it comes to death?"

 _Kind of_ _a fact of life,_ Willie wrote. Rose laughed.

"I met those three the night they died," she told him, setting the paper she held down on the piano and resting her hands in her lap. It was a page of sheet music, Willie realised. "Their bandmate - he's been a good friend ever since."

Willie was used to time stretching out between ghosts and their lifer counterparts, but it never got less jarring the first time he found out some adult was the same age as a teenaged ghost he knew.

"I don't think often about death," Rose said. "Or I didn't. About a year and a half ago, I - I was sick. I thought I would have to leave Julie and Carlos behind."

Willie swallowed. He'd asked Alex if Julie's death magic had come about because of her ghost band.

Now he was wondering if the ghost band happened because she'd had death magic already.

Rose laughed, throwing her head back. The light caught on the curls of her hair and the wrinkles around her eyes, and for a moment Willie wondered what it was like to grow up.

"I remember thinking, _ay Dios,_ if I can't be there for her let someone be," she said. "Let somebody watch out for my kids. I love my husband, and my sister, but they shouldn't have to do this alone."

 _Why are you telling me this?_ Willie asked her.

She smiled ruefully in his direction.

"There are only so many ways a girl can talk to ghosts, even one with magic," she said. "I only hope it was something as simple as a prayer being answered that led those boys to Julie."

She sighed, brushing her hair back behind her ear.

"You're the one who didn't know, either," she said. "Carrie was talking to you, as much as she was Flynn or me."

 _Yeah,_ Willie said.

"And they want you hidden from that other ghost," Rose added. Willie didn't answer, because it hadn't been a question.

"I hope you find someone who's better with ghosts than I," Rose said. Willie thought it was better not to tell her who Alex had apparently had in mind.

"Oh! Uh, hey Willie." Willi turned to see Reggie, looking embarrassed.

"Another one?" Rose asked. Willie wrote Reggie's name down and she smiled.

"Hello, Reggie," she said.

"Hi," Reggie said, approaching slowly. "Sorry, I didn't know you'd be in here. Either of you. I just..."

His eyes fell on the sheet music in front of Rose. Reggie reached out, tapping his fingers lightly along the keys in what Willie assumed was the pattern of the song, but never actually hitting a note.

"You ok?" Willie asked.

"Fine, yeah," Reggie said. He glanced back at the sheet music. "That's the first song I ever heard Julie sing."

Willie glanced at it. He couldn't read music, but he could read words just fine, and that note at the end was written to Julie - a small, supportive thing that a mother could easily say every day to her daughter.

"Rose died, didn't she?" he asked. Reggie jumped, banging the keys and making Rose jump as well.

"Sorry!" Reggie said. _Sorry_ , he wrote out sheepishly. Rose laughed lightly.

"Do you need me to leave you two alone?" she asked.

 _We'll go,_ Reggie wrote before Willie could respond. "Come on," Reggie said to him, leading him out of the studio into the pale morning light.

"How did you know?" Reggie asked him.

"Julie's magic had to do with death," Willie said. "Alex told me. And Rose said she'd been sick."

Reggie closed his eyes.

"Please don't tell her," Reggie said. "Don't - we're trying to find a way to fix this without hurting anybody."

"And what if you can't?" Willie asked. Reggie fiddled with the sleeves of his flannel, looking down.

"If we can't, then we start over," he said. "I'm not - I couldn't do that to Julie."

"Not that I think you're wrong about what she'd want," Willie said. "But are you ever going to ask her? It kinda seems like you guys make a lot of decisions for other people."

Reggie flinched, and Willie felt bad for even saying it.

"Man, look," he said. "I'd probably do the same. But I think Rose has already guessed what the change might be. You should tell her, before something goes wrong."

"Yeah, maybe," Reggie said. "You believe us, then?"

Willie had lost track of when wondering about the truth became wondering about the details. He shrugged.

"It's too crazy for you to be lying," he said. Reggie brightened.

"Dude, Alex is going to be so happy!" he exclaimed.

"Because we were close?" Willie asked.

"Yeah, you were -" Reggie paused, narrowing his eyes and pointing suspiciously at Willie. "I'm not going to do that. I am a vault of secrets."

"Uh-huh," Willie said. "Well, you don't have to, because I think I figured it out."

He didn't know what exactly he should do about having a boyfriend he didn't remember from another timeline, but that was maybe a problem for future Willie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does Rose know? No. Does she have suspicions? Absolutely. She's a very smart woman who had a near-death experience a year and a half ago, death comes up in her thoughts every once in a while.  
> The last of Willie's misgivings have faded and he's pretty sure Alex is his au boyfriend, but Reggie's fears are as strong as ever for good reason. I remain a terrible and cruel author.  
> Next time, Flynn and Nick touch base, marking this, our first screaming session of the au. Good for them, mostly.


	17. You Wanna Take a Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn and Nick compare notes, and make a horrifying discovery.

Flynn had been avoiding Julie and she knew that Julie could tell, but what was she supposed to do? She'd done her best to make excuses about why she couldn't tell Julie what Carrie had said to her, and she knew Julie respected Carrie's privacy, but keeping a secret like this?

Flynn wanted to tell Julie. She would have, if it wasn't for the fact that Julie absolutely wouldn't believe her.

Avoiding Julie's texts was maybe not the best way of handling that, but it wasn't as though anybody expected Flynn to be _mature_ about things. She was sixteen, she was allowed a little irrationality.

Then Nick texted her instead of Julie, and that was really weird. Carrie had gotten him involved in her weirdness, and then not even told Julie's mom and Flynn about it?

So after school, Flynn paced the living room of her house, waiting for the doorbell to ring, hoping that when it did it would be Nick.

"You're really excited for this boy to come over?" her mom asked. Flynn grimaced, horrified. Considering she was gay and Nick had been Julie's crush for a while, that was a concept she absolutely could not let continue.

"I'm helping him with... some stuff," Flynn said. "He's been having a hard time lately."

Why was she always _lying_ now? Carrie had a lot to answer for.

"This is the boy whose mother got sick," her mom realised. Flynn nodded. Her mom touched Flynn's cheek fondly.

"I'm sure the fact that you're there for him means a lot all on its own. You don't have to save the whole world to be a helpful person."

Flynn thought it was very rude of her mother to call her out like that when she wasn't even about to engage in that particular bad habit. Still, she just smiled.

The doorbell rang. Flynn tensed, trying to think of a good way to make sure her mom didn't overhear them talking about ghosts and magic and time travel, but she didn't need to.

"I'll be working in my office if you need me," Flynn's mom said as Flynn headed for the door.

"Thanks!" Flynn called after her, and then she turned to Nick and took a deep breath.

"This is weird, right?" Flynn said. Nick smiled.

"A little," he said.

"Also I should probably say that you can come in, because you're standing on the porch." Flynn tugged Nick inside and closed the door.

"So what exactly did Carrie say to you?" Flynn asked. She led him to the living room, but felt weird sitting down. Nick stayed standing as well.

"What did she say to you?" Nick asked. They stared at each other.

"We're both sitting here going, 'oh no, what if I'm wrong and the other person thinks I'm insane' aren't we?" Flynn asked.

"Probably," Nick said.

"Ok, did she mention ghosts?" Flynn asked.

"Oh, good, she told you that, too," Nick said. He shook his head, laughing in a way that Flynn was pretty sure came from nerves. "So... Carrie said the world was different."

"She told you about the time travel thing, too?" Flynn asked.

"The _what?_ She said there was some kind of magic making my mom sick."

Flynn stared at him. Why hadn't Carrie mentioned that part? Why was Nick's mom involved at all?

"She said, to me and Julie's mom, that some - some ghosts changed the past," Flynn said slowly. "But it sounded like it went a lot further back than when your mom got sick."

"But that's still different, right?" Nick said, desperation creeping into his voice.

"I mean, I guess? I don't know, I'm still barely able to believe Carrie's nice now," Flynn said. She remembered the way Carrie had clung to her in the studio. "Barely," she said, because she did believe it. "Anyway, the ghosts are probably real."

"Probably?" Nick asked.

"I mean, I saw a pen writing on its own when nobody was holding it," Flynn said. "That seems pretty ghostly to me. Not that they were rattling chains or anything, but chains are in short supply around here. I think. I hope."

"You saw a ghost?"

"I saw a pen, I think the whole point of ghosts is that you can't see them," Flynn corrected him.

Nick laughed again, turning away from Flynn as he ran a hand through his hair. He let out a short, half-hearted yell of frustration, making Flynn jump. It wasn't a loud sound, but she honestly hadn't known Nick could yell.

"Tell me what Carrie told you," he requested. "Please."

Flynn swallowed.

"Let's go ask her ourselves," Flynn said. "I don't want to get it wrong. It's... pretty wild."

On the way to Carrie's, Nick broke the uneasy silence that had fallen between them only once.

"So what did change, if it wasn't my mom?" he asked.

"That's the first thing I want to ask her," Flynn said. They were quiet again.

Carrie seemed startled to see Flynn on her doorstep, and her eyes widened further when she saw Nick.

"This is about the - my other friends," she said, with a glance behind her towards where her dad was sitting. "Dad, some friends are here and we're going to my room!" She grabbed Flynn and Nick's hands without so much as asking for permission and herded them up the stairs.

"I need to ask you something before you start trying to explain everything to Nick," Flynn said, tugging her arm out of Carrie's grasp at the top of the stairs. "We need to know. What changed?"

"What?" Carrie asked.

"Something changed, if all this time travel stuff is true. What was it?" Flynn pressed.

“I can’t tell you,” Carrie said.

“Why? You told me everything else, what changed?”

"Carrie, why didn't you tell Flynn about my mom?" Nick asked. Carrie looked between them, and Flynn remembered that Carrie thought of Flynn as her girlfriend. Her ex and her girlfriend, both staring Carrie down, demanding the same single answer.

Flynn would cave under that pressure. Even Carrie had to.

“You said Julie’s mom got sick?” Carrie asked, looking away.

“Yeah, I think it’s coming up on, like, two years ago, why?” Flynn looked at Nick, whose face had paled dramatically. "Nick? Are you ok?"

"I don't know how they made your mom get sick," Carrie said quietly to Nick. "But I think they did it because they had to put Julie's mom's sickness somewhere."

"No," Nick said.

"Wait," Flynn interrupted. "Wait, Carrie - you can't - Please don't tell me..."

Her voice failed her. Nick took a step back, his foot nearly slipping off the edge of the stairs before Carrie steadied him.

"This is why I didn't want to tell anybody," Carrie said. "Why we haven't told Julie, because believe me we want to. I mean, if you could see how _mopey_ Reggie and Luke are without her -"

That was clearly an attempt at Carrie's usual acidity, but her voice broke. She scowled and didn't try to continue.

"Rose died?" Flynn asked quietly.

"No, I'm lying to you because I'm that terrible of a person!" Carrie snapped. Flynn took a step back, and regret filled Carrie's face.

"Carrie, can we - can we help my mom without Julie's mom getting sick again?" Nick asked quietly.

Carrie let go of his arm, which she'd been clinging to since he almost slipped. She took a step away from both of them, turning to face down the hallway.

"We don't know what we can do right now," she said. "Nobody even has magic that works on ghosts here. For all we know, Caleb comes after us for taking Willie."

"You need to tell us everything," Nick said. "No more protecting us, no more hiding."

"And then we figure out how to tell Julie, together," Flynn added.

"You _want_ to tell Julie her mom is dead?" Carrie said, whipping around to stare at Flynn.

"No," Flynn said. The thought made her stomach want to crawl up out of her. "But I won't lie to her."

Carrie tilted her head, eyeing Flynn thoughtfully.

"We'll figure something out," she said. She headed down the hall towards her room, then paused with her hand on the door. "I'm sorry," she added. Nick and Flynn glanced at each other. Nick raised his eyebrows. Flynn shrugged. That was just New Carrie again, she guessed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the halfway point! The truth is halfway out!  
> Now they just have to, you know, get it the rest of the way out there and stop yelling long enough to come up with a real plan.  
> Also if anyone's curious about Carrie staring at Flynn at the end there, think about how many times recently Flynn has kept things from Julie for her own good. Is this a lesson carrying over between timelines? Is this a less traumatised Flynn? These are the questions Carrie ponders when she pulls herself out of her own head enough.  
> Next time: no matter what happens, Carrie knows she needs the Instrument back. She also figures maybe if she pushes Julie hard enough, she can find out what Julie's magic is like in this timeline. Nothing could possibly go wrong with her many, convoluted, one-person plans.


	18. On the Other Side

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A tiny step back in our otherwise linear narrative, taking a look at how Carrie's been. Not great, as it turns out.

_Earlier that same day_

The day after Carrie told Flynn, Rose, and Willie the truth, she went to school with new purpose. She didn't want to wait around for everyone to find out Rose was supposed to die, and she didn't want to wait around for Caleb. She needed to find the Instrument, and then they could figure out the rest once it was safely back with Carrie and away from Caleb or Ava.

She just had to figure out how to do that.

The Instrument had started to feel like a presence in Carrie's mind, before it was stolen. She spent as many spare moments of the morning as she could trying to remember what that felt like, hoping that she could reconnect with it somehow. It was probably the first time she'd ever wanted the thing in her head, and yet it eluded her. Typical.

She leaned her head against her locker door, trying for the third time before she had to go smile and pretend everything was normal for Kayla and the others.

"Carrie?"

Carrie snapped upright and whirled around to see Julie looking at her like Carrie was a wild animal she'd just cornered.

"What do you want?" Carrie snapped, Julie's rejection of her still fresh in her mind even if she understood why it had happened.

"Look, Carrie, we may not be friends, but that doesn't mean -" Julie bit her lip. "You've been weird, and now Flynn is acting weird. Is everything ok?" she asked carefully.

Carrie stared at her. She could brush Julie off, which would only make things worse. She could tell Julie the truth, with no proof and no backup, which would also make things worse. She could tell Julie to wait, but that would seem like Carrie was brushing her off, which brought Carrie right back to option one.

Then again, nobody said Julie had to know the full truth to be able to help, and if Julie felt like she was helping, maybe she wouldn't dig further.

"Can I ask you something?" Carrie asked.

"Ok," Julie said, bemused.

"What one thing matters most to you?" Carrie said. "What shapes your life?"

Julie stared at her.

"What?" she asked.

"Do you need me to say it again?" Carrie asked. "Because if you're just surprised, you did hear me right and I am being serious, so let's just skip the shock and confusion and get to your answer."

"Well, at least you're still Carrie," Julie said. Carrie rolled her eyes.

"I'm waiting," Carrie reminded her.

"I don't know! Uh, music, I guess?"

"Music," Carrie repeated. It made sense.

"It's kind of what we do around here?" Julie tried for a laugh. When Carrie didn't respond, she nodded awkwardly.

"This is just getting weirder," Julie said.

"Can you play something for me?" Carrie asked.

"Can I what?"

"I need you to play a song," Carrie said. "A song about finding things, maybe."

Julie gaped at her.

"Carrie, are you sure you're getting enough sleep?" she asked gently.

"I'm fine!" Carrie snapped. She hadn't, not really, but that was beside the point. "Look, I can fix everything if you just -"

"Fix what, Carrie?" Julie asked. "Because it seems like the only things broken around here are things that you broke."

"Julie," Carrie said. "You really think we can't be friends again?"

"That's not the problem, Carrie," Julie said. "Look, I get it. You want to be a better person. You want to feel good about yourself, and have more friends, and get back people you lost. And I'm not trying to be selfish! I want to help, that's why I'm standing here. But why should I be your friend again? Are you nicer? More likely to apologise? Are you going to make anything up to Flynn and me?"

"I'm trying to do that!" Carrie protested.

"By making me play for you?" Julie asked.

"Julie, I need -" Carrie cut herself off, trying to think of how she could explain.

"What do I need, Carrie? What does Flynn need?"

Carrie stared at Julie, working her way through the other girl's words. She groaned quietly, rubbing her eyes.

"Never mind," Carrie said, because Julie was right. She'd walked into school wanting the Instrument back, wanting her life back, and there was a big part of her that was imagining the world snapping back into place once the Instrument was back in her hands. Or Julie, bringing her own magic back and suddenly seeing ghosts again. It was the part of Carrie that wanted to kiss Flynn, fairy-tale style, and be remembered, and it would be so easy if that was how she could do it.  
Carrie just wanted to go home. It was hard to care how she did it, but she had to. If she messed this up, no matter what timeline she was in her friends would never speak to her again.

"Whatever," Carrie said. "Look, forget the song. I'm sorry. It's probably better if I don't drag you into this."

She stumbled away, breathing shakily and trying not to cry.

 _What about Julie?_ the boys had kept asking. _What do we tell her? When? How?_

And she'd listened to every question, asked them a few times herself, and still had been about three seconds from dragging Julie into magic and ghost stuff.

"I want to go home," Carrie admitted to herself, leaning against the wall in an out-of-sight nook. There were framed photos of former years' debate teams opposite her. As she lifted her head, she caught sight of her reflection in the glass. Her hair was perfect as always, but Carrie could see the misery on her face even with the faces of nerds from the eighties superimposed on it.

"Ok," Carrie said to herself. "Ok. You find the Instrument, after you figure out how to hide the guys. And you won't use it to go home, not unless there's no other option. You can do it. There's got to be more answers." She slapped herself lightly on her own cheeks, trying to think. Her mind kept coming again and again to Flynn and Julie - the only ones she knew with magic that worked on ghosts, meaning the only ones who could fight back against Caleb or Ava when Carrie tried for the Instrument.

She resolved to ask the guys what they thought when she got home, ready for an afternoon of squabbling over whether it should be Flynn or Julie, only for Flynn herself to show up at Carrie's door before Carrie could ask the boys, with Nick in tow.

With no idea what she was going to do or how to keep anybody else happy, Carrie let them in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To make it clear, this was a quick little time jump back to the same day as last chapter but during the school day. I tried to put in a time stamp but I'm drowsy enough who knows if words make sense anymore.  
> Anyway, Carrie really has been looking at this all along like it's something to fix in her life alone, and though she knows that's not the case she doesn't always believe it.  
> Also, normally would Julie be this harsh? No, but remember that this is the same day as the previous chapter, meaning her best friend is avoiding her directly after talking to their shared enemy. I'd be a little testy with said enemy, too, wouldn't you?  
> Next time, Reggie and the other ghosts learn that Flynn and Nick are over, as well as hearing about Carrie's Julie-related indiscretion.


	19. We Live Like Kings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reggie sees some friends again, has a lot of one-on-one discussions, and learns more about the Instrument than he's really comfortable with.

Reggie was exploring Carrie's room - she had a ballet barre! Right there under her window! It made him wonder if she'd teach him a few steps - when she opened the door and pulled Flynn and Nick inside after her.

"Flynn!" Reggie exclaimed. She stared around the room sceptically and Reggie belatedly remembered neither one of them could see him.

"Reggie, where are the others?" Carrie asked briskly. She crossed the room and took the ballet shoe Reggie had forgotten he was holding. Nick was watching the shoe like he was afraid it would bite him.

"That shoe was floating," he said.

"That was Reggie," Carrie said, rolling her eyes. She frowned at the shoe, then whacked Reggie on the head with it. It didn't hurt, but he pouted at her anyway. That was rude.

"Are we gonna tell Julie?" he asked, because it seemed like if they were bringing in Nick too they really ought to get Julie in here.

Carrie's brow furrowed for an instant, then she scowled and whacked him with the shoe again.

"Go get the others," she said.

"You could have just said no," Reggie pointed out. Something in Carrie's glare seemed a little too upset to be the usual kind of playful teasing they did, though, so he poofed away to find the others.

Luke was on the Orpheum marquee, like the first night after they'd come back to the world from limbo.

"Hey," Reggie said, sitting next to him. "Kept my shirt this time!"

Luke snorted.

"Proud of you," he said.

"Flynn and Nick are in Carrie's room, and she told me to get you, so I think we're about to have a big team meeting," Reggie said. "Do you know if Willie's with Alex?"

"He hasn't exactly talked to me much," Luke said. "Maybe?"

"I'll go check," Reggie said. He knew Alex was at the museum again - there was a lot of nostalgia going around, and maybe he'd be worried except Reggie himself had spent a lot of time following Ray around that day. Reggie figured they were allowed.

Alex was alone when Reggie found him.

"Hey, man," Reggie said. "No Willie?"

"I think he's still processing," Alex said with an attempt at a smile. "What's up?"

"Carrie's calling a meeting, I think, Nick and Flynn are at her house."

Alex shot to his feet, alarmed.

"Nick? Nick and Flynn? Are we finally going to figure out what to do?" He paused. "Is Rose..."

"Nah, and I don't think Carrie wants us to tell Julie yet," Reggie said, remembering the ballet shoe incident.

"Tell her I'll be right there," Alex said. "I can look for Willie, I'm the one who knows where he'd go."

"Ok," Reggie said. He eyed Alex warily, worried about his friend but unsure how to bring it up. "Are you two ok?"

He didn't know if Alex knew that Willie knew they'd been boyfriends. Reggie also wasn't sure he wanted Alex to know he'd been the one who was there when Willie figured it out.

"I mean, we're probably as ok as we can be," Alex said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and smiled ruefully at Reggie. "I'll be there in a minute."

"You better, I don't want Carrie to bring out a tap shoe or something," Reggie said. He saw Alex frown in confusion just before he poofed out, but it was too late to explain.

"Where's Alex and Willie?" Luke asked when Reggie arrived back at Carrie's house.

"Alex is going to get Willie," Reggie said. "They'll be here."

He hoped. If Willie was hanging out at all his usual places, wouldn't that mean Caleb could find him?

"Carrie, you can't just drop a bomb like that on us and expect us to sit quietly forever," Flynn burst out. She was sitting on the edge of Carrie's bed. Nick was standing, leaning against the ballet barre, looking around like he was trying to spot Reggie or Luke.

"I'm waiting," Carrie said.

"For what?" Nick asked.

"I don't - I'm not starting this without Alex and Willie," Carrie said.

"You already started it, and I'm not waiting to have this talk," Flynn said, hopping off the bed and stalking over to Carrie. She folded her arms and glared at Carrie. "Julie's mom. What happened?"

"I'm not doing this, Flynn," Carrie said quietly.

"Wait, Carrie - this is all stuff Willie knows, we could start here!" Reggie protested. She glared at him, and there it was again - the little tremble in her chin that told him maybe she wasn't angry the way she was trying to look.

"Then _you_ tell her," Carrie snapped.

Luke frowned, looking ready to jump in on Reggie's behalf, but Reggie just grabbed a pen and paper from Carrie's desk and started writing. Everybody was angry or sad these days, and he didn't like it but he understood.

Anyway, he was used to brushing off anger, and he liked it better from Carrie when he knew why she was sad than from somebody who really took it out on him.

 _Julie's mom was sick, before we met her,_ Reggie wrote. _Julie, before we met Julie. She died a year before Julie pulled us out of limbo, and we think Rose was the one who helped Julie find us._

He passed the paper to Flynn, who took a deep breath before accepting it. Flynn read it aloud for Nick.

"What do you mean, Julie pulled you out of limbo?" Nick asked.

"Good question," Reggie said, hastily taking the paper back from Flynn and writing his words down when he remembered Nick and Flynn couldn't hear him. "We don't know exactly, but Julie has magic death powers and Rose keeps sending signs so we think maybe it was both of them."

Flynn paused halfway through reading this, only getting through the 'd' in "death" before she shook her head and silently passed the paper to Nick.

"This is crazy, and apparently real, but I don't have to be happy about it," Flynn said when she caught Carrie eyeing her. Carrie looked like she agreed with Flynn.

"We need a plan," Luke said. "It's great that we've got people who know, now, and maybe Flynn will even see us someday, but how do we make them remember us? That's still the plan, right?"

Reggie hastily scribbled down everything Luke said, with a little note at the top that read, _This is what Luke's saying!_ He handed the paper to Flynn and waited expectantly for Carrie to respond to Luke's question. If anybody was planning something, it was her.

"I don't have a plan," Carrie said quietly.

"Wait, Carrie -" Reggie said.

"Why does this say I might see ghosts someday?" Flynn asked, interrupting Reggie mid-question.

"Dude," Luke said.

"What? I didn't think we were keeping any secrets from them anymore!" Reggie exclaimed.

"Because you have magic," Carrie said, voice bright but devoid of all emotion. It was kind of like her stage voice, when Reggie had first "met" her and she'd been talking about her show at that assembly. Reggie hadn't heard it a lot, since they'd become friends. This was probably a bad sign.

"I thought you said Julie had magic," Flynn said.

"You both do," Carrie said with a broad, fake smile.

"Why do you look like that?" Nick asked her.

"Like what?" Her smile got bigger.

"Carrie, what's wrong?" Flynn asked.  
"I am _trying,"_ Carrie said. "Not to make this my problem. Not to mess with Julie's life, or drag dangerous magic into it when she never asked for it. I just want to make sure Ava and Caleb stay the hell out of my life, and I need the Instrument, and you know what? I think, if I have it, I won't be able to talk myself out of making everything the way it was, because that thing -"

She broke off.

"You... you want things to change back," Reggie repeated.

"No," Carrie said. "No, I don't, I just -"

She took a breath.

"Flynn, you have magic, it's probably friendship magic because I cannot imagine that has changed," Carrie announced. "And I don't know what Julie's magic is like here, because her powers were death powers. It's why the ghost band ever happened, we think. I am sorry I'm not the right person to lead this stupid quest, I'm sorry that I want all the wrong things, and I'm sorry that I almost dragged Julie into this without actually telling her what we're up against. I am going to leave the room and scream into a pillow now, and Luke and Reggie can catch you up."

With her head held high, Carrie marched out of the room.

"Dude, I'm gonna go after her," Reggie said.

"Reggie!" Luke hissed. "Nobody can read my writing!"

Reggie bounced on his toes, glancing nervously at the door Carrie had just slammed shut.

"I'll write them while you turn on Carrie's computer," Reggie said. Luke was surprisingly decent at typing, given how little experience he'd had with computers before he died. Luke hurried over and Reggie scribbled down a quick apology to Flynn and Nick.

 _None of us really know what to do_ , he said. _We just want Julie to be ok and remember us at the same time._

"What about my mom?" Nick asked. "I mean, if that's the thing that changed... Is it a choice? Rose or Mom?"

"See, this is why we need somebody who knows how magic works!" Reggie exclaimed to Luke, because that was easier than actually thinking about what Nick had asked.

"Why do you say that like it's a conversation we've _ever_ had?" Luke asked.

"I just think things would go better if Rose was here," Reggie said.

"Yeah, it'll go real great when we tell her she's supposed to be dead," Luke said. Reggie winced. Luke sighed.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"I know," Reggie said. "I just... I'm trying. And people get mad at me for that."

"We're not mad at you, Reg," Luke said softly, reaching his hand out to Reggie. Reggie took it, well aware he was pouting but unable to stop.

"I know," Reggie said again. The laptop was on. "I'm gonna go after Carrie."

Carrie was at the top of the stairs, staring down at the wide open space of the mansion's ground floor.

"Hey," Reggie said, sitting next to her.

"I know I'm a terrible person," Carrie said.

"I want things to be normal, too," Reggie said. Carrie stared at him.

"You're the only one who has been taking this even remotely well," she said. "You can actually _look_ at Julie."

"I can't look away," Reggie said. "Or Ray. Or Carlos. Flynn, and Nick, and Willie - if I stop looking, maybe it gets worse. Maybe they really disappear this time."

"You lost your whole entire family," Carrie said. "And I'm sitting here upset that I messed up apologising to my girlfriend."

"I never lost my whole family," Reggie said. "I've got Luke and Alex." He nudged her with his shoulder, and she sent him a half-hearted death glare.

"I've got you," he offered.

"Cute," Carrie said, though her lips twitched into the tiniest smile Reggie had ever seen.

"We have to figure out what to do," Reggie said. "You're right, that we can't leave the Instrument with Caleb and Ava. You're our best bet at keeping it away from them."

"I don't think you can trust me," Carrie said. "I don't think you could trust anybody the Instrument likes to just... let things be. It wants us to change things back, because it wants us to know."

Reggie shifted uneasily. He didn't know what to do with that. The Instrument scared him, from the moment he'd first found out about it, and hearing that from Carrie after being so sure it wouldn't bother them again - it was a bad sign.

"We can't figure anything out if we stay out here," Reggie said.

"Stop being right, it's weird when you know what you're talking about," Carrie grumbled. Reggie grinned, hopping up and offering her his hand.

"Come on, before Flynn double murders Luke because he was annoying her," Reggie said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...I have no excuse. The Carrie angst just flies out of me.  
> I'm also very sorry about the sheer amount of keeping-it-together Reggie is having to do, but at least this is a far cry from the boy who ran away from Julie in the first fic? Proud of this kid, very sorry that I did that to him.  
> Next time, has anybody noticed Alex and Willie haven't shown up yet?


	20. Long Live the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex and Willie have the world's worst beach day.

Alex found Willie skating near the beach – the same area they’d been in when he first introduced Willie to Luke and Reggie, actually.

“Hey,” Alex said, approaching Willie slowly. He slowed to a stop and picked up his board.

“Alex,” Willie said. “What’s up? Is something wrong?”

“Apparently we’re having a meeting,” Alex said.

“A meeting? Who with?”

Alex and Willie whipped around to see Caleb, who was eyeing passing beachgoers with scorn. Alex grabbed Willie’s hand impulsively, ready to poof away, but with a wave of Caleb’s hand it was like he was glued to the space.

“Now, enough of that running, Alex, I’m just here to talk,” Caleb said. “And you’ve made it so hard to get Willie alone to talk. That’s a nice job on the magic. I suppose it couldn’t be Julie who did it, though.”

Willie’s grip on Alex tightened.

“So it’s true,” Willie said. “You really – you changed the whole timeline.”

“Not the whole timeline, William, just the past year and change,” Caleb said with a smirk. “Now, why don’t you boys tell me who did that spell for you? It can’t be Julie, and it can’t be Flynn, because I am quite sure she’s not your friend here.”

“Come on, Willie,” Alex muttered, receiving no resistance when he turned to walk away.

Caleb appeared in front of them.

“Not so fast,” he said. “We still have business.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about,” Alex said. He tried to poof away again, but Caleb was still blocking him.

“You’re not getting away from me that easily, Alex, and you know it,” Caleb said. “Now tell me who your mysterious new magician is.”

Alex and Willie exchanged glances, and Alex could see the glimmer of a plan in Willie’s eyes.

“Oh, now, before you try to run away, consider this,” Caleb said. “I found you. I couldn’t sense you, but I knew where you’d go, William. I know you and all your little friends have been holed up with Carrie Wilson, that you’ve been to poor little Julie’s house, where all your lifer friends go to school. You could leave, but where would you go?”

Alex swallowed. They didn’t have a lot of options, but he wasn’t going to give in to whatever Caleb wanted.

“What do you want from us?” Willie said.

“What do you want from me?” Caleb replied with a smile. “Look, I can’t imagine you boys are happy with such a _gap_ in your experiences. I could… realign your memories.”

“You want me to remember this timeline,” Alex said, unconvinced by Caleb’s pitch.

“I swear, on my honour as a club owner, that I’d just make sure Willie remembered you,” Caleb said.

“Willie’s not the only person you made us lose,” Alex snapped. “No deal.”

“I can make Willie remember, I can make all your lifer friends _see_ you,” Caleb pressed. “All you have to do is make sure Julie Molina never realises her power.”

“I’ve known Alex for only a few days, and I _know_ he’s never going for that,” Willie said.

Caleb glanced at Willie dismissively.

“It was worth a try,” he said. “It’s quite frustrating to have to force more than one of you to work for me at a time.”

“You mean you can’t _handle_ it,” Alex said, remembering their last _real_ fight with Caleb. “You may be able to control a few of us, but you couldn’t take all of us.”

Caleb snarled, and with a swipe of his hand he, Alex, and Willie were at the club.

“Oh, certainly, you could manage a few small rebellions,” he said. “But while you’re doing that, you’d be leaving your lifers all alone. And Ava does like her living toys.” He lifted his hands, gesturing to the busy backstage.

“Isn’t it better to play nice? Think of this as a new version of that truce Julie set up,” Caleb said. “You won’t be playing with her anytime soon, after all, so why not join my band in the meantime?”

“Why are you trying to do this?” Alex asked. “You have to know we’ll say no.”

Caleb just smiled.

“Will you?”

He held his hand out, and Willie took a jerky step forward.

“Let him go!” Alex snapped, trying to tug Willie back.

Caleb smiled and beckoned Willie closer. Willie’s steps, though still slow, evened out, and he’d just grazed Caleb’s hand with his fingertips when a shrill voice interrupted them.

“What are you _doing_?”

Ava stood behind Caleb, holding the Instrument in her fist, staring at Alex with horror in her eyes.

“What did you do, you performing monkey?” she snapped, shoving Caleb back from Willie. Willie gasped and stumbled back into Alex, who steadied him as best he could. “That boy is supposed to be in _limbo_. Don’t tell me you’re idiot enough to bring them back just to gloat, not after everything we’ve done to get them out of the way.”

“I had nothing to do with it,” Caleb replied, shaking her off. “I’m merely taking advantage.”

“Advantage? _Advantage_?” Ava shrieked. “Your head is so filled with glitter, you can’t plan your way past a curtain!”

Alex nudged Willie.

“Probably our best chance to leave,” he whispered. Willie nodded, taking Alex’s hand. Alex drew in a sharp, habitual breath, eyeing their entwined fingers.

“Alex?” Willie prompted. Alex looked up at him, smiled nervously, and they poofed away together.

“Dude!” Luke said, springing up as Alex and Willie appeared. “Hey, what took you so long?”

“Caleb found us. He knows we’ve been here,” Alex blurted.

“Of course he does,” Carrie spat bitterly.

“Who’s doing what, exactly?” Flynn interrupted. She and Nick looked bewildered, and Alex belatedly remembered they couldn’t see most of the people in the room.

“We have to go,” Alex said.

“No! Even if I could go without freaking my dad out, I’m not letting some toothless, second-rate magician scare me out of my own house!” Carrie exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Reggie said with a little fist pump. Alex, Luke, and Willie stared at him.

“Also, maybe that’s a bad plan,” Reggie added sheepishly.

“We don’t exactly have any good ones,” Carrie snapped.

“Ok, hang on, we still don’t know what’s up?” Flynn reminded them. Carrie sighed.

“Ok,” she said. “I’m only saying this once, because we have a lot more to worry about.” She quickly launched into an explanation of who Caleb and Ava were and what they’d done, finishing with what Alex had just told her.

“So how did you get Caleb off your back before?” Nick asked.

Carrie exchanged nervous looks with Alex and the others.

“Julie,” Flynn guessed. “If she has magic death powers, she probably could fight a ghost, right?”

“She doesn’t have them here,” Carrie said. “She doesn’t even know about magic at all.”

“Then it seems like a really good time to tell her,” Nick said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are, things are finally picking up speed! I don't have a lot to say about this one, just... we're closing in on the resolution? ish? I mean there's still a lot to go but we're much closer to done.  
> Next time, Julie learns the truth, while Rose does her best to stave off Caleb and Ava for another day.


	21. Welcome to the Brotherhood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie just wants to tell Julie the truth on her terms. Caleb, of course, wants the exact opposite.

Julie didn’t know what she’d expected when she opened the door, but it wasn’t Flynn, Carrie, and Nick all together on her doorstep, looking frantic. 

“What is going on?” Julie asked. “Flynn? You’ve been avoiding me all day, and now -” 

“We need to talk, and you’re going to hate it,” Flynn said. 

“You wanted to know what was going on,” Carrie spoke up. She didn’t look at Julie, and Julie tried not to be annoyed by that. Carrie could afford to be a little less cryptic and maybe actually respect Julie enough to look at her, but apparently that wasn’t about to happen. 

“Julie, what’s -” Julie’s mom stopped talking as she rounded the corner and saw who was outside. Julie looked back at her, bewildered by her mother’s uncharacteristic loss of confidence. 

“Uh, you know Flynn and Carrie,” Julie said. “And this is Nick!” 

“Nick?” her mom repeated. “Nick. Like the boy who you...” 

“Yes, mom,” Julie muttered, embarrassed. She’d liked him, it hadn’t gone anywhere, there was really no reason for her mom to expose her like that. 

“Sorry,” her mom said. “What are you all outside for? Come in!” Her smile looked fake to Julie, though she couldn’t imagine why. 

“We’re in a lot of trouble,” Carrie said, hesitating on the threshold as Nick and Flynn came in. “This has to be quick.” 

“So we’ll make it quick,” Julie’s mom said gently, guiding Carrie inside. “And I’ll help you.” 

“You know what’s going on, don’t you?” Julie said. “Everything with Carrie – whatever’s got Flynn so scared, and you kept it from me?” 

“Julie, _mija_ ,” her mom began, but Carrie interrupted. 

“Don’t bother getting upset until you know what you’re upset about, Julie, there’s plenty of time to hate us later,” she said. “Guys?” 

To Julie’s confusion, Carrie said this last word not to anyone in the room, but to the still-open doorway, one hand digging through her purse. She held out a pen and a little notebook, and Julie shrieked as they floated away from Carrie’s hand all on their own. 

“First order of business,” Carrie said with one of her giant plastic smiles. “Ghosts are real, and there’s four of them in the room right now.” 

Julie sank down onto the couch and listened in disbelief as Carrie spilled the details of what she’d supposedly been up to for the last year and a half – starting a band with ghosts, playing the Orpheum, time travel, reconciling with Carrie – and the most amazing part was the way everyone else just listened. Obviously, everyone else had heard bits and pieces, but the fact that they all just accepted the story mystified Julie. 

“Let’s say I believe you,” Julie said when Carrie’s story wound down. “What changed?” 

“You always were a clever one,” came a new voice. Julie scrambled up from her seat. Her mom stepped in front of her, Carrie, Flynn and Nick as they huddled together, moving away from the newcomer. 

“Please tell me that’s not an evil ghost,” Flynn said. 

“That’s Caleb,” Carrie said. 

“Why can I _see_ him?” Flynn demanded. 

“Probably to make you afraid. I’m sorry, would you rather _not_ know he was here?” Carrie asked. 

“Can we save this argument for later?” Nick requested. 

“What do you want?” Julie’s mom asked calmly, her arm in front of Julie and the others the only real sign of her tension. “How can I help you?” 

“You already have, Mrs Molina, and thank you so much for offering,” Caleb said. “Now, Julie, I suppose they told you about the magic? How you have _special_ powers everyone else can only dream of, how you’re so much more powerful than any other magic user?” 

They hadn’t, really, Carrie just barely skimming over the details of Julie-and-magic, but Julie wasn’t about to respond either way. 

The pen from Carrie’s purse flew through the air, passing through Caleb and bouncing once pitifully on the carpet. He looked down at it, then up at the space it had come from. 

“What exactly did you hope to achieve, Reggie?” he asked with a smirk. The notebook joined the pen a few seconds later. 

“Seriously?” Carrie whispered. “I am so embarrassed by both of you!” 

“Julie, I’m only here to tell you what they won’t,” Caleb said. “Because we both know they’re still keeping something from you.” 

“Something you did,” Carrie snapped. “Julie, I was about to tell you before he showed up -” 

“All the happiness Carrie’s counting on comes from one thing,” Caleb interrupted her. “So does the magic that could defeat me.” 

“Julie, listen, I swear I want to tell you and I will, he just wants to make you mad -” 

“Would you like me to tell you, Julie? No friendship required,” Caleb said. 

“He saved your mom’s life!” Carrie burst out. 

The only thing that broke the silence was a quiet intake of breath from Flynn. Caleb was smiling at them. 

“What?” Julie asked. That was – that was a good thing, wasn’t it? Why would an evil ghost who hated them save Julie’s mom? 

“Your mom – Rose, you – died.” Carrie stepped away from the group, folding her arms. “That’s why you found the guys in the first place, your mom was sending you signs, and she helped you pull them out of limbo.” 

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Julie protested. 

“Carrie, those ghosts she calls your friends, they don’t care about your mother,” Caleb said gently. “They only want their own happiness back, at your expense.” 

“That’s not true!” Carrie snapped. 

“Isn’t it?” Caleb said. 

“I think it’s time you left,” Julie’s mom cut in coldly, stepping forward. 

“And who are you to get rid of me?” Caleb asked with a grin. He stepped closer as well, closing the space between himself and Julie’s mom. Julie took a shaky breath, trying to figure out what she should do. 

“Leave her alone!” Flynn demanded. The lights flared, and Caleb was forced back a step. Everyone froze, staring at Flynn, whose eyes were wide. 

“You’re learning quicker this time around,” Caleb said bitterly. “But you can’t keep me out forever, Flynn.” 

“That implies I can keep you out right now, and I’m ok with that,” Flynn said, grabbing Julie’s hand as she glared at Caleb. “So leave my friends alone!” 

Julie’s mom pulled a little bottle from her pocket, sprinkling some of the salt-like contents at her feet. Caleb stumbled back again. 

“It’ll wear off, and I’ll be back,” he said. “I always get what I want.” With a tiny purple flash, he was gone. 

“Jules,” Flynn said immediately, tugging at Julie’s hand to try and get her to look at Flynn. “Julie, hey, look at me.” 

Julie pulled her hand free. 

“How many of you knew?” she asked. “About my mom.” 

“I’m the only one, Flynn and Nick just found out,” Carrie said. “I hadn’t even told Rose.” 

“You do want things to go back to how they were, though,” Julie said. “I mean, it sounds like life was a lot better for you there.” 

“Julie, please –” Carrie began. 

“ _Mija_ ,” Rose said. 

“I need a minute,” Julie said. “Or maybe ten. Just – don't come after me.” 

She ran up the stairs, trying not to cry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're wondering what's happening over in ghost land, after Julie shrieked they immediately all went into sad puppy mode and Carrie had to carry (ha) the conversation pretty much on her own. They forgot that ghosts freaked Julie out the last time she met them, and were not prepared for this time.  
> You know, just in case you weren't sad enough already.  
> However, in the next chapter Luke gets to talk to Julie for the first time since our first chapter, and we get a look at how she's spent the past year and change without the boys.


	22. All You'll Ever Need

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke tries his hand at comforting people, and it goes impressively well. An impromptu concert is put on.

“Now what?” Flynn asked quietly, staring up the stairs after Julie. Luke was right next to her, vibrating with the desire to go after Julie and held in place only by the fact that she wouldn’t know he was even there. 

“Now we make sure he stays out,” Rose said grimly. “Flynn, I’ll need your help.” 

“My help? But – I don’t even know how I did that,” Flynn said. 

“I do,” Rose said. She started rummaging through a drawer in the coffee table that Luke had never noticed before. “But I’ve never been great at keeping people out.” 

“You’re not... upset?” Carrie asked timidly. 

Rose paused. 

“I am,” she admitted. “But not at you.” She pulled a bag out of the drawer and slammed it with enough force to make everyone else jump. 

“I should have known my miraculous recovery was too good to be true,” she muttered bitterly. Rose sighed and looked up at Flynn. “Flynn, sweetheart? Will you help me?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Flynn said. She glanced up the stairs again. 

“We’ll give her a minute,” Rose said gently. “And we need to do this now.” Flynn nodded and followed Rose out. 

Carrie sank down into the nearest seat, staring blankly at her knees. 

“I bet if it was Flynn, that would have gone fine,” she said quietly. 

“No, I’m pretty sure it would have gone bad no matter who said it,” Alex said. 

“Yeah, none of this is your fault,” Luke said. Nick, unaware of the ghostly support, walked over to Carrie and rested his hand on her shoulder. 

“I’m sure Julie doesn’t blame you,” he said. 

“She’s a nice person, Nick, but she’s not superhuman,” Carrie said drily. “Who wouldn’t blame me, at least a little?” 

“Hey,” Luke said. “We all want our lives back.” 

Carrie raised her eyebrows. Luke was unable to stop himself from pouting. 

“You know what I mean,” he muttered. “Look, it’s awful for everybody. Julie’s upset, but... you tried to tell her, and she knows that. She’s not gonna buy what Caleb’s selling.” 

He glanced back at the stairs. 

“You want to go after her, don’t you?” Carrie asked. 

“What?” Nick said. 

“Luke,” Carrie explained. She looked at Luke expectantly. 

“I can’t even talk to her,” he said. “My handwriting sucks.” 

“She’s got a computer,” Carrie said flatly. “You can type, can’t you?” 

“Oh,” Luke said. He looked at Reggie, who nodded at him excitedly. “Oh!” Luke turned and scrambled up the stairs. 

Luke knocked on Julie’s door, second-guessing everything. What if she just got mad? What if she blamed him? 

“Who is it?” Julie called. There was an edge of annoyance, but she didn’t seem about to fling things at the door. 

“Luke,” he said instinctively, then groaned when he remembered she couldn’t hear him. A second later, Julie yanked open the door. The anger on her face turned to confusion when she saw the apparently empty hallway. 

“You’re one of Carrie’s ghosts, aren’t you?” Julie asked. 

“No, I’m your ghost,” Luke said. He groaned again, ducking under Julie’s arm and making a beeline for her computer. 

“What are you doing?” Julie demanded when she saw the computer open. Luke scowled at the trackpad when it wouldn’t work for him – dead ghost fingers and touch-operated devices didn’t mix – and lunged for Julie’s seldom-used mouse. 

“Again, what is going on?” Julie demanded, trying to take the mouse from him. Luke managed to click on the program Julie used to type up homework before she took it back. 

_I’ve only got so many ways to talk to you_ , he typed as fast as he could, which wasn’t as fast as his lifer friends but was pretty good for a guy who grew up in the eighties and nineties. 

“Oh,” Julie said. She looked at the mouse, then sheepishly held it out to him. “Sorry.” 

_It’s ok_ , Luke said. _I could’ve sung to you, then you could hear me, but I thought that would feel a little weird._

Julie laughed. 

“Maybe a little,” she said. She sat on her bed, resting her chin on one knee, staring at the computer screen. “What do you want? To tell me how it’s not Carrie’s fault?” 

_No,_ Luke said. _Are you ok?_

_“_ Would you be?” Julie asked. “If it was your mom?” 

_I was alive for a little bit_ , Luke said. _I don’t remember that timeline, but I know I wouldn’t want my mom to know there was a world where that happened. I wouldn’t want her to know what we chose_. 

“What do you mean, what you chose?” Julie asked, lifting her head. 

Luke gave her the details of that first time travel adventure to the best of his ability. 

_Adult Alex and I didn’t want to die, but we wanted to make sure there were ghost versions of us out there,_ he said. 

“And Reggie had the chance to live, but he didn’t take it? Why?” 

_He didn’t want to leave you_. 

Luke winced as soon as he’d typed it – was that too much? Would she figure out what she meant to them? But Julie just sighed and lowered her head back onto her knee. 

“That doesn’t exactly help,” she said. “If my mom dies, she’s leaving me.” 

Luke didn’t have an answer to that. 

“So why should I believe all this?” Julie asked. “I mean, I’ll believe that you’re ghosts, the evidence is kind of overwhelming.” She gestured at the computer, and Luke laughed at the annoyed look on her face. “But my ghost band from another timeline?” 

Luke sat back, looking between her and the computer as he tried to figure out what would convince her. His eyes fell past her, to her dream box on the shelf. 

“ _If I leave you on a bad note, leave you on a sad note, guess that means I’m buying lunch that day_ ,” he sang. Julie sat up, frowning, as Luke made his way through the chorus. 

“I wrote that poem for Flynn when my mom got sick,” she said when he stopped. “That’s... I was thinking about putting it to music, but that’s not the tune.” 

_Yeah, Reggie and I wrote it,_ Luke said. _The music, I mean._

_“_ Yeah, I figured that out,” Julie said with a laugh. Luke grinned, encouraged, and thought about other songs this version of Julie might know. 

_“Don’t blink, no I don’t_ _wanna_ _miss it,”_ Luke sang gently. “ _One thing and it’s back to the beginning.”_

_“_ _Cause_ _everything is rushing in fast,”_ Julie joined in softly. Luke lowered his voice, thrilled to hear her singing again. “ _Keep going on, never look back, and it’s hard to -”_

She and Luke broke off, staring at each other. Well, Julie was staring at the computer, but it counted. 

They’d been singing different lyrics. 

_We finished writing it together,_ Luke typed hesitantly. _I forgot that part wasn’t done._

The second verse had been Luke and Julie together, too. 

“So Mom and I never finished,” Julie said. Luke looked away from her, unsure what to do. That had been such a good moment, singing with Julie again, and he’d messed it up. 

“How did it go for you?” Julie asked. 

Luke jerked his head up to stare at her. 

_Do you want to hear_? he typed hesitantly. 

Julie took a deep breath and nodded. 

_Meet us in the studio,_ he typed before poofing downstairs. 

“Boys,” Luke said, unable to contain his smile. “We’re doing a show.” 

“What,” Carrie said flatly. 

“What?” Alex and Nick said in unison for entirely different reasons. 

“Julie wants to hear our version of ‘Stand Tall,’” Luke said. “She and her mom finished it differently here. So I said we could play it for her.” 

“Are you sure?” Alex asked. Reggie was already gone, poofed out to the studio. 

“I can’t hide from her forever,” Luke said. “I don’t want to. Dude, she _sang_ with me for a second. I miss that.” 

Alex smiled. 

“Then let’s go play for her,” he said. 

Julie arrived in the studio a minute later. Nick, Carrie, and Willie had awkwardly followed them out there, but they hung back until Julie rolled her eyes and pushed the door open wider, gesturing for them to come in. Flynn and Rose came around the side of the studio a few seconds later. 

“What’s going on?” Rose asked Julie. 

“The ghosts are going to play ‘Stand Tall,’” Julie said. “Their version.” 

Luke tensed, eyeing Rose. Would she be upset that they’d had a hand in something that was originally hers? But Rose only smiled. 

“I’d love to hear it, if that’s all right,” she said. 

“Yes!” Reggie said, matching his tone to a piano chord well enough that all the lifers heard his voice. 

“Dude,” Alex said. Carrie giggled. Julie looked over at her and Carrie took a step back, unsure. Julie offered her a small smile. 

“Ok,” Julie said, clapping her hands. “So let’s hear it, ghost band.” 

Luke grinned, summoning his guitar. 

“Reg, you wanna take the piano part?” he asked his boyfriend softly. Reggie looked at him in alarm. 

“So she can hear how it’s meant to go,” Luke said. 

“Yeah,” Reggie said. “Yeah, I will. You should sing it, though.” 

“We could do it together?” Luke said. “I want -” He cut himself off, unsure how to say it. 

Julie loved both of them, in their timeline. It made sense to him to have them both sing her part. To his relief, Reggie smiled crookedly at him. 

“Sure,” he said. 

“Let’s come in when we practiced, and not how we did at the Orpheum,” Luke said to Alex. 

“I think that’s probably a good plan,” Alex said. Reggie snickered and started to play. He made eye contact with Luke, and they started to sing. 

When they got to the first change – _one, two, three, four times_ \- Luke saw Rose’s eyes widen slightly. Julie kept looking at the piano, like she was trying to see Reggie. She jumped when Alex started playing. 

“Wow,” she laughed softly. Alex grinned at Luke and Reggie. Luke shook his head, voice rising with excitement. It was nice to know they didn’t have to appear visually to have that effect, though he’d still take being seen by Julie any day. 

Reggie summoned his bass and slipped into the bass riff smoothly, and Luke started playing to cover for the sudden lack of piano. 

“ _Right now, I’m loving every minute,”_ he sang, watching Julie’s face. Her brow was furrowed, but there was something almost like delight in her eyes – this was a verse they’d written together, not about the fear of loss but the joy of coming back, and he could see her cataloguing the differences between her version and his. 

“ _I’m going out of my mind,”_ Luke sang, and then he lost his voice in shock for a moment as Julie jumped in. 

“ _Whatever happens, even if I’m the last standing,_ _I’mma_ _stand tall,”_ she sang. He jumped back in hastily, smiling at Reggie, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her. 

She sang with them all the way to the last “ _stand tall”_ and Luke and the others stopped singing a little early, listening to her note ring out. 

Julie looked directly at Luke when she was done. 

“I saw you, when I started singing,” she said. 

Luke took a step forward, trying to think of something to say. 

“I can’t anymore,” Julie added. “But... with the guitar, and the beanie. You’re the one who was in my room earlier, right?” 

Conveniently, Luke had “My Name Is Luke” to sing. He wasn’t sure what he’d do to introduce Reggie and Alex, but maybe Carrie could. Julie giggled. 

“Ok, Luke,” she said. “This is crazy. But I definitely believe you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> me, screaming quietly, because it's been so long since I wrote some quality Juke vibes  
> Ask me sometime about how much Stand Tall means to me, I dare you, it's like a tedtalk over here. I love that song so much.  
> (as for ppl seeing the boys when Julie sang, yes it's not just Julie, but Nick, Flynn, and Rose weren't about to say anything in that moment because it was Julie's moment and that would have felt awkward, and it's not like Carrie or Willie saw anything different anyway)  
> Next time, we hop back to plot a little bit because Willie feels like maybe he should warn some people about what Caleb's really like.


	23. Watch Me Make a Move

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Willie checks in on some friends, and then some enemies. An innocent vase is brutally murdered.

The energy of the room had been infectious when the band played, especially when Julie jumped in, but as Julie, Nick, and Flynn started to talk about how they’d been able to see the band for a short time, Willie’s many doubts and fears started to creep back in. His wasn’t the only soul Caleb owned, and the way Carrie and Alex told it, he wasn’t the only ghost Caleb would resent for having defied him. 

“Are you ok?” Alex asked him. Willie hadn’t even noticed him leave the drumset. 

“I want to talk to Genevieve,” he said. “Or Dante or... somebody.” 

“I’ll come with you,” Alex offered immediately. 

“Alex, if any of them know you at all it’s as the guy who kidnapped me,” Willie reminded him. He touched Alex’s elbow to soften the blow. He didn’t blame Alex anymore, even if there were still some things he’d like to say. 

Alex frowned, hunching his shoulders, but he still nodded. 

“Ok,” he said. “If something goes wrong, or if you’re not back soon -” 

“I know I can count on you,” Willie said. “And that your magic lifer friends are better with plans than you, which is also pretty reassuring.” 

“I probably deserve that,” Alex admitted. “Please be careful?” 

“I’m always careful,” Willie lied cheerfully. He snickered as he saw Alex’s gaze flit to his head, seeking out the exact spot where the crack would be on his helmet. 

“For a ghost, anyway,” he amended. “I’ll be back soon.” 

He poofed away before Alex could think of another argument. 

He lingered in the shadows by the scrim, keeping an eye out for Caleb. Dante passed, caught sight of him, and seemed ready to shout out. Willie shook his head frantically, placing a finger to his lips. 

“Willie, what are you doing? Are you all right? Caleb said -” 

“You can’t let Caleb know I’m here,” Willie said. “Dante, it’s a lot to explain, but... you can’t trust him.” 

Dante looked around nervously. 

“Where is Caleb?” Willie asked, suddenly afraid he’d missed seeing him. 

“He came in and stormed into his dressing room,” Dante said. “That ghost who showed up a couple days ago, the one who keeps insulting him, she followed him.” 

Willie knew who the ghost was – she'd showed up with no explanation and proceeded to argue with Caleb every time they weren’t holed up in his dressing room together. He was also almost positive now that the ghost in question was Ava. 

“Look, Dante, I need you to spread the word, as quietly as you can,” Willie said. “We all know Caleb hurts anybody he can’t control. There’s this lifer, just a kid, and he’s doing everything he can to destroy her because he’s scared. This club isn’t safe for anybody.” 

“Willie,” Dante began. 

“Do you trust me?” Willie asked. 

Dante sighed. 

“I’ll talk to Genevieve,” he said. “Don’t go anywhere.” 

“Dude, I’m kind of in trouble with Caleb,” Willie muttered as Dante walked away. He looked over towards the dressing rooms. If Dante didn’t want him to leave... maybe he’d just have to investigate some things while he was here. 

Willie crept up the stairs and stood as close to the corner as he dared, listening. 

“I don’t want to hear it, Ava!” came Caleb’s voice, followed by what sounded like the crash of a vase against the dressing room door. 

The response was quieter, and Willie poked his head around the corner. The hall was empty. Willie crept closer, hoping nobody would come through. 

“...what you expected.” 

“I had planned to set them at odds!” Caleb snapped. “I didn’t realise the mother was magical, too.” 

“What?” 

Ava’s voice was loud on that one. Willie jerked back from the door. 

“Apparently, lifers with magic are a great deal more common than I once thought,” Caleb said bitterly. “So you could hardly blame me for finding myself unprepared.” 

“I absolutely can, you’re supposed to be intimidating,” Ava said. “It’s a miracle you’ve held on to power this long. I will say it makes more sense for this magic to run in a family. It does make you wonder at the coincidence of Flynn and Julie becoming friends. Do you think magic is contagious?” 

“I’m glad you’re having fun with this,” Caleb snapped. “Everything is going to collapse, again.” 

“Well, maybe you should have left well enough alone in the first place.” 

“As though you ever do?” Caleb scoffed. “I should never have accepted this plan. It’s taking _my_ magic, because as soon as I stop the spell Julie’s mother dies all over again and then we _really_ have nothing. I notice you don’t have a hand in any of this.” 

“I did the first one,” Ava said dismissively. “Because somebody got himself put on a magical leash.” 

“And I come back to the present to find my magic depleted after over a year of maintaining that spell.” Caleb’s voice grew quieter, and Willie had to strain to catch what he said next. 

“Tell me that wasn’t on purpose, Ava,” he said smoothly. 

“Consider it a happy accident,” she replied cheerfully. “After all, you yourself always say, I’m terrible at subtlety.” 

“You’re not the only one,” Caleb said. Before Willie could react, the dressing room door swung open. Caleb reached out and patted Willie on the cheek. 

“Those wards are wearing off, William,” he said. “Better get them replaced.” 

“Willie?” Dante and Genevieve stood at the end of the hall. 

“What did you tell them?” Caleb hissed. 

“Why don’t you ask us?” Genevieve snapped. 

“Genevieve, darling, this is between William and I. Why don’t you -” 

“I told them the truth, Caleb,” Willie said. 

“What, and they really believed I time-travelled to change how the past year has gone? I doubt it,” Caleb scoffed. 

“Willie never mentioned that part,” Dante said. “Just that you were ready to hurt lifers. Says to me maybe that story’s true, however crazy it sounds.”

Genevieve met Willie’s eyes. 

_Go,_ she mouthed. Willie shook his head. He’d come back to warn the others; he couldn’t just leave them. 

“Oh, yes,” drawled Ava. She leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “I can see you’ve got everything well in hand, Caleb.” 

“Are you planning on helping, or critiquing?” he snapped. “And as for you, William, you’ll want to remember that I still own your soul.” 

It was like Willie was being pushed around through a thick layer of cotton, as Caleb’s magic forced one of his legs to move, then the other. 

“Can you really do that to everyone who knows what you’re up to, Caleb?” Genevieve asked quietly. She glared at Willie again, making one sharp shooing gesture before stepping closer to Caleb. 

“Of course I can,” Caleb said, but Willie could see the bluff in his eyes. Even if he couldn’t, the control over Willie’s body dissipated for one second, and Willie finally seized his chance to poof away. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooh what spell could Caleb possibly be talking about?  
> Look, you all know I'll be answering that and it'll be answered soon actually (like... next chapter soon), I don't know who I think I'm fooling.


	24. A Tomb with a View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The bad news gets worse, to the point where I don't have anything funny to say in the summary.

Nick was pretty sure it was the move of a coward, but he stepped outside the studio after the song finished. He didn’t know if he was ready to tell Julie that his mom was sick for the same reason her mom wasn’t. He didn’t know if he’d ever be ready. 

Trying to distract himself from the conversation he knew had to happen, he turned on his phone. Twitter had sent him another “recommended news tweet” in his notifications, and he went to dismiss it only to pause. 

_Multiple people insist their dead mothers are alive_. 

Normally, Nick would assume this was just Twitter boosting some tabloid article. Normally, he wasn’t hanging out with a bunch of ghosts and Carrie Wilson the apparent time traveller. 

“I’m going to regret this,” he muttered, but also he thought he’d regret it if he didn’t look. 

_Sarah Mulligan woke up on Saturday morning expecting to meet her mother for breakfast, only to find that her mother had passed away a year and a half ago._

_“I talked to her Friday night,” she insisted. “I didn’t imagine the past eighteen months.”_

_Ms_ _Mulligan’s story, though incredible, is suddenly not unusual. Multiple people have come forward with claims that their own deceased mothers were not dead until they woke up on Saturday morning,_ _in spite of the fact that_ _each woman died one month apart over the course of the last year and a half._

Nick lowered his phone and ran his hand through his hair, trying to think. That was the same amount of time it had been since Julie’s mom got sick. The waking up one morning, to find the world had changed, that sounded like Carrie’s time travel rules at work. 

What if it wasn’t just his mom? 

“Guys?” he said tentatively as he walked back inside. Everyone turned to look at him, the smile on Julie’s face fading as she met his eyes. 

“What happened?” Carrie asked. 

Nick held up his phone. 

“Julie, there’s a little bit more to tell you,” he said. “And... I think it just got worse.” 

Carrie snatched the phone from his hand, reading quickly. Then she held it out to the side, rolling her eyes. Nick, Flynn, and Julie eyed her with confusion. 

“The guys are reading,” she explained. 

“What exactly is it you haven’t said yet?” Rose spoke up gently. 

Nick, Carrie, and Flynn looked at each other nervously. 

“It’s my mom,” Nick said quietly. “I’ll tell.” Julie frowned and opened her mouth, but when she met Nick’s eyes she stayed quiet. Probably the look on his face told her he wasn’t ready for questions. 

“Apparently, in the other timeline, _my_ mom was never sick,” Nick said. Rose swore, and everyone stared at her in shock. 

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry, I – I wondered. It’s hard to stop an illness like that, magic or not.” 

“Wait, so – so my mom is only alive because your mom is...” 

_Dying_ , Julie didn’t say. 

“Yeah,” Nick said. “And, if I’m right about what I just read, it gets worse.” 

The coffee table screeched as it moved a fraction of an inch. Everybody but Carrie jumped. 

“That’s not helping, Luke,” she said quietly. Her eyes trailed from the coffee table to the couch, and she shrugged ruefully at it. 

“How much worse?” Julie asked. “If a ghost is throwing tantrums...” 

“When did your mother get sick, Nick?” Rose asked. She sat down on the piano bench, staring straight ahead like she could see beyond the studio walls. 

“The start of the month,” Nick said. 

“A monthly cycle,” Rose said. “If it stops, I get sick again, probably just as sick as I was when I so _miraculously_ got better.” 

“It could be a coincidence, right?” Flynn asked, though she didn’t sound like she believed that any more than Nick did. 

Carrie started. 

“Willie! Where have you been?” she snapped. After a moment of awkward silence on the part of Nick and the other living people in the room, Carrie’s face drained of colour. 

“It’s definitely Caleb, then,” she said. “Willie went to warn the club ghosts about him, and he overheard Caleb and Ava talking. He hasn’t got a lot of power right now, but that’s because apparently he’s been recasting the spell that saved Julie’s mom every month since the first time.” 

“So it’s almost definitely connected,” Nick said. Carrie held her hand out like she was drawing Willie aside, and started explaining to him in a low voice what she’d read on Nick’s phone. Nick looked at Julie for the first time since the conversation really got going. 

She’d sat down on the edge of the coffee table, staring at the floor. Nick could see tears creeping down her face. 

“So there’s no compromise,” she said. 

“Julie,” Nick said, but he didn’t have a way to reassure her. What was he going to say, _Oh, it’s fine, we can let my mom suffer and die?_

It wouldn’t be fair to anyone to offer her false comfort. 

A blanket hanging over the back of one of the chairs lifted up and wrapped around Julie’s shoulders. She touched the corner of it absently and lifted her head enough to offer a smile around the room. A piece of paper drifted into her lap a few seconds later. 

“It’s not your fault,” Julie said quietly, touching the paper. “But thank you. Which one -” 

“Reggie gave you the blanket,” Carrie said. “Alex wrote the note. They – they're all giving you a ghost group hug. It’s actually a little embarrassing.” 

Julie laughed. It turned into a sob. 

“Mom...” she said, looking up at her mother. Nick realised they’d been talking about Rose’s death with her in the room, and she had barely said a word. 

“I...” Rose wore a shaky smile. Nick was reminded of the way his own mom smiled at Rachel every time they visited. The way she used all her strength to be somebody her kids could lean on. “I need to talk to some people. Make sure we know for sure what’s going on with all this.” 

Julie drew in a breath, looking hopeful. Nick knew that kind of hope. He felt it every time the doctors tried a new treatment, or came up with a new potential diagnosis. 

It was the kind of hope you half-expected to let you down. 

Rose stood, walking over to Julie to caress her face. 

“I’m going to make a phone call,” she said. Her voice was shockingly steady. “I’ll be right outside.” When she was out of sight, Nick heard a thump against the wall, like Rose had just hit something. 

“Julie?” Carrie said. “I think... I think we should talk.” 

Nick prepared to step out and find a place far away from either Julie or Rose, to give them the privacy they needed. Flynn hesitated for a second, looking at Julie. 

“Go on, Flynn,” Julie said. Flynn took her hand and squeezed it, then followed Nick out. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is my most egregious writing crime. I am so sorry.  
> Coming up, as you may guess, Carrie and Julie talk about a long list of things. Really, most of the next six chapters are people clearing the air. There's a lot to clear.


	25. Everything Has Got a Price

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Carrie admits some things. Julie searches for anything to distract her. Hugs are issued, thankfully.

Carrie perched on the edge of the chair to Julie’s left, the one she knew nobody else ever used. It was always at least two people clustered together on the opposite chair, the rest of them on the couch or sprawled on the floor or table. 

It had been nice to see such a crowd of people in the studio again; Carrie had gotten used to coming here and being surrounded by people. 

Too bad everything was awful and everyone being here had only meant everybody got let down at once. 

“I’m sorry,” Carrie said. 

“Did you do it?” Julie asked. Carrie leaned back, startled by the sharpness of her tone. 

“No,” she said. 

“Then _stop_ apologising,” Julie said. 

“Usually people wish I’d apologise more,” Carrie said. 

“I’m expecting a lot of sorries in the future,” Julie said. “I already got a lot when my mom was sick the first time.” 

Carrie remembered how determined she'd been to treat Julie the same after her mom died. 

“If we change time, you’ll be used to it,” she said. 

“I won’t remember this?” Julie asked. 

“That depends,” Carrie said. “On whether you come back to change it or not. Which... look, I won’t lie to you Julie, it’d probably be a lot easier if you came. Caleb and Ava are afraid of you in a way they aren’t of any of us.” 

“Not even you?” Julie asked with a shaky smile. 

“I did give him a pretty scary speech once,” Carrie said. “But he’s only scared of me because he’s scared of you, so I’m not sure it counts.” 

“Great,” Julie said. “When people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, scary was on the list.” 

She drew a shaky breath and lowered her head into her hands. 

“I guess, if we change things, we bring everyone else’s mom back,” Julie said. “And Nick’s mom will be ok. I’ll remember all those things that happened.” 

“And you’ll remember this,” Carrie said. 

“If I _help_ make sure my own mother dies,” Julie said. 

“You won’t be doing anything,” Carrie said. “You told me not to apologise for this, because I didn’t do it. You aren’t hurting your mom, and you didn’t hurt any of those other women. There’s a lot of things you can be self-pitying about right now, Julie, but this isn’t one of them so stop it.” 

“Sometimes I wonder if maybe you got possessed, and then you say things like that and I know it’s you,” Julie said. She was crying again. “If we do this, it’s over, right?” 

Carrie thought about the way the Instrument echoed in her mind, back in the usual timeline. 

“I don’t know,” she said. “The Instrument – the time travel thing, it wants to be used. I don’t know if this would have happened if I had used it before.” 

It was the first time she’d admitted that. Julie lifted her head and stared at Carrie. 

“What?” she asked. 

“It likes me,” Carrie said. “It followed me around. That’s why Flynn and I ended up in the past in the first place. Since then... it’s been pushing me to use it again. Do the same thing Ava does. I’m worried that when I didn’t...” 

“It left you for Ava and Caleb,” Julie said. 

“Lots of people leave me, but I really didn’t expect this,” Carrie muttered. 

“I’d still trust you with this over Ava or Caleb,” Julie said. She wiped her cheeks. “What’s it like? Not all the ghost magic and time travel, but... the band. Life without mom.” 

Carrie thought about the Julie she’d gotten to know. She was confident in herself, in the first bright moments of a career that still made Carrie jealous if she thought about it too long, dating two boys who adored her, and spending every lunchtime at a table full of friends. 

Then there were the sad songs. The mornings where Julie didn’t talk to anybody but Flynn, or sometimes Luke or Reggie. The way she stared away from the conversation, thinking things Carrie could only guess at. 

“You’re healing,” Carrie said. “You didn’t even play for a year. I said a lot of things that probably didn’t help. You kind of got kicked out of the music program for a day.” 

“You’re bad at pep talks,” Julie said. 

“You heard the rest of the story already,” Carrie said. “I’m not going to lie and say it’s fine. But you’re not just playing now, you’re a star. Everybody who was here just now, those ghosts you sang with and Nick and Willie, they might as well be your family. You lost your mom. I can see how much it hurts you. But you’re ok.” 

“What about you?” Julie asked. 

“I... What about me?” 

“You said everybody might as well be family,” Julie said. “I mean, you didn’t say Flynn, but that’s because we already know that. What about you?” 

Carrie stared at her, surprised. 

“I don’t know,” she said. 

Julie nodded, holding Carrie’s gaze. 

“I think I do,” she said. Carrie swallowed the urge to ask. 

“So what do you want to do now?” Carrie asked instead. 

“I want some time,” Julie said. “And to talk to my mom.” 

Carrie nodded. 

“Thank you,” Julie said. “You could have just... changed things. You never had to tell me.” 

“If it weren’t for what we just found out,” Carrie said. “I promise you, we never would have changed anything.” 

The next thing Carrie knew, her arms were full of Julie, who had wrapped her own arms around Carrie as tightly as she could. Carrie buried her nose in Julie's hair and closed her eyes, wishing this hug had happened for any other reason.

"I got more time with her," Julie said, but Carrie was almost sure Julie was only talking to herself. "It's extra time."

Carrie tightened her grip on Julie as the other girl tried to reassure herself and said nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said, most of what we're getting is talking, to make sure everybody has touched base in the ways they need to. We've got more details about the Instrument, but I don't think it comforted Julie (or anybody else) the way she really hoped. Julie knows what's in store for her, but also that most of it is already in her past.  
> Now it's just a matter of getting up the nerve to do it, right?  
> Next time, we find that not everybody is so resigned to let things happen, and Flynn is trying to be the best manager/best friend she can be.


	26. You and Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flynn tries. She makes mistakes. She keeps trying.

Flynn paced outside the studio. She could see Rose, who was talking on the phone, but she couldn’t hear her. Nick was sitting on the steps, watching Flynn.

“It’ll be ok,” Nick said.

“Will it?” Flynn snapped. Nick’s shoulders slumped, and he looked away.

“I know, I’m sorry,” he said. Flynn felt a little guilty – comforting people was her instinct, too – but he was going to get his mom _back_ if they changed things. Flynn’s _best friend_ was about to lose hers.

“There has to be a way to change things so nobody’s mom dies, right?” Flynn said. “I mean, ok, so if we stop them from casting that spell Julie’s mom dies. But if we go back earlier!” She whirled around to look at Nick, who shrugged.

“I don’t know anything about magic,” he said.

Flynn felt a sudden breeze on the top of her head. With alarm, she realized her hat was no longer on her head and now hovered at her shoulder height. It hit her gently on the shoulder and settled back onto her head at a jaunty angle as she stared.

“Ok, right, ghosts,” Flynn said. “You know I don’t know what that means, right?”

“Maybe that they know more about magic than we do?” Nick suggested. Flynn glared at him, and he held up his hands.

“I’m gonna check on Julie,” Flynn said.

“Flynn…” Nick said, reaching out to her, but Flynn was already marching back over to the studio. When she opened the door, she saw Julie and Carrie clinging to each other. Carrie turned her head at the sound of the door, and Flynn could have sworn that was relief on her face.

“So how do we fix this?” Flynn said. Julie stood up, wiping her face and smiling unsteadily at Flynn. Flynn walked over and wrapped an arm around Julie. “Because this whole thing is stupid. I can’t believe there’s only options where people die.”

“Flynn,” Carrie said, her voice uncharacteristically soft. “If there was an option that didn’t take a whole lot of magic, I’m pretty sure Caleb and Ava would have done it. Ava hasn’t got any real magic, and Caleb wouldn’t want to lose that much power after everything that happened in the club last time.”

Flynn shook her head.

“No, no way, I’m not going to just accept defeat,” she said. “If we have magic, and it’s not creepy ghost magic, then there’s something right?”

Carrie was smiling up at her. Flynn lost steam on her rant, unsettled.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Like what? I’m not looking at you at all!” Carrie said immediately, scowling. Flynn raised her eyebrows. Julie clapped a hand over her mouth, looking like she was biting down very hard on a laugh.

“Look, we don’t know how magic works,” Flynn said, gesturing between herself and Julie. “You don’t have any. Do you even know that much?”

“No,” Carrie said defensively. She wrinkled her nose, apparently realising that her denial proved Flynn’s point. “Ok, look, I don’t know a lot, but I’m not wrong that Caleb would have done differently if he could. And neither of you has magic that would work like that, Flynn, your magic is about friendship. We don’t even know what Julie can do –“

“Ha! See, we don’t know what Julie can do. Maybe she could do it,” Flynn said.

Carrie looked ready to say something else, then sighed.

“We could ask Julie’s mom,” Flynn pressed. She was _going_ to win this argument. “She knows magic, right?”

Carrie curled in on herself.

“Flynn, I’m pretty sure if she had any answers she wouldn’t be so upset right now,” Carrie said quietly, with a nervous glance at Julie. Flynn felt Julie tense under her arm. The pit in her stomach grew.

She was trying to offer Julie hope, not hurt her more.

“Why can’t you just work with me?” Flynn hissed.

“Do you think we haven’t tossed this stuff around already?” Carrie snapped. “Do you think I wanted to have this conversation? Do you think this is my fault?”

“Well, it sounds like you’d be a lot happier in the other timeline!” Flynn snapped.

Carrie pulled back like Flynn had hit her.

“Flynn,” Julie said softly. “Look, I appreciate it. And we can ask mom. But it’s ok.”

“No, it’s not,” Flynn said.

“There are things you can’t protect me from, Flynn, but I need you anyway,” Julie said. “If we have to do this, I need somebody to hold me, ok? Not remind me how unfair it is, because I already know.”

Flynn met her best friend’s gaze and swallowed hard.

“Ok,” Flynn said. She pressed her forehead against Julie’s. “I’m sorry.”

Julie smiled at her as she pulled away. Her eyes flicked over to Carrie and her smile faded.

“Talk to her,” she muttered lowly, taking Flynn’s hand and giving it a squeeze before heading out of the studio.

Flynn groaned, but she knew Julie was right. She looked at Carrie, who was still seated, avoiding Flynn’s gaze.

“I’m sorry,” they blurted at the same time.

Flynn stared at Carrie. Carrie stared at Flynn.

“I’ll go,” Flynn said quickly. “Look, I shouldn’t have said that stuff about you wanting things to go back. I don’t know how much you’ve changed, but I know you would never want Rose dead.”

“You’re not wrong,” Carrie said. “There are a lot of times I’ve wanted to just change things back.”

“Which is why it matters that you didn’t,” Flynn said. She sat on the edge of the table, facing Carrie. “What was it like?”

Carrie stared at her like she was stupid, which was a nice note of familiarity amongst all the weirdness.

“You and me,” Flynn clarified. She might as well know what it was that Carrie wanted to go back to. That Flynn would be going back to.

“We argue,” Carrie said. “Mostly about, like, who made up that one part of Dirty Candi’s latest dance, or who Reggie likes more, or whether or not I took the last brownie when I was at your house. You come to rehearsals. I…”

Flynn eyed Carrie sceptically as she trailed off.

“What?” she asked.

“I wrote you a song,” Carrie muttered.

“Seriously?” Flynn shrieked. Carrie jumped.

“Sorry,” Flynn said. “But… you. You only write songs about yourself.”

“I write about me, so why wouldn’t I write about my girlfriend?” Carrie said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Flynn had to admit, that seemed like Carrie Wilson-brand logic.

Also, that was still absolutely wild to think about. She forcibly turned her thoughts back to what she really needed to talk about.

“I really am sorry,” Flynn said. “It wasn’t fair. And I said I’d help you, too, and I don’t get to take that stuff away just because I don’t like how it all turned out.”

Carrie sat up a little straighter, smiling at Flynn.

“I swear if we can figure something out, we’ll do it,” Carrie said. “Even if that brings us back to this timeline.”

“Sounds like a pretty good deal,” Flynn said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In a different story, I would... absolutely say Flynn has the right of it. But in a story about grief and acceptance and the power of change, unfortunately, her very reasonable and good reaction doesn't work so well. Also, she's still a teenager who says stupid things, but at least they're all mature enough to talk it out.  
> Sorry it's so late today, I have been doing much stuff. Nothing super noteworthy, just teaching and so on, but much of it.  
> Next time, the conversations continue! Rose deserves to have her say, and she's finally going to get it. Also, we're going to know what on earth has been up with the guys lately.


	27. Let Me Hear You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luke thinks about mothers, and Rose thinks about her children.

Luke watched Flynn head back into the studio, angry at himself for not thinking of anything better to do than whack her with her own hat. It was the kind of thing that had worked before, but also before Flynn had known about him for a lot longer and been a lot closer to him.

“Do you think she’s right?” Reggie asked. “Do you think we could fix everything?”

Luke and Alex exchanged looks, neither one willing to say anything. Reggie looked between them.

“I’m going to pretend that’s a silence of agreement,” he announced, sitting glumly beside Nick. “How are you doing, Nick?”

While Reggie held a one-sided conversation with Nick and Alex and Willie watched in respective awe and amusement, Luke looked over at Rose. She was off the phone now, staring down at it with tears running down her face.

“Dude,” Luke said, hitting Alex lightly. “Do we have anything to write on?”

“You’re going to write?” Alex asked.

“Do you want to talk to Rose?” Luke asked. Alex’s eyes widened and he took a step back.

“Somebody definitely should,” he said. He set his jaw. “We can do it together?”

That was _really_ tempting. Luke got the feeling, from the look Willie was giving them, that Alex wasn’t the only one who wanted to offer.

But there was something about the fact that this was Julie’s mom, when she’d helped him face his own mother.

“I’ll see how well she can read my writing,” Luke said. He clapped Alex on the shoulder, trying for a smile, and went looking for a pen and paper. Once he’d found some – left on the kitchen counter in the house, which he felt a little bad about because Ray had enough trouble finding things as it was – he poofed to Rose’s side, trying to keep his nerve up.

“For Julie,” he muttered. He painstakingly wrote out a _hey_ , and tapped Rose on the shoulder with the pen.

She jerked her head up, sighing when Luke held up the paper.

“Hello,” she said, pasting a smile on her face.

 _I’m sorry,_ Luke wrote, because that seemed like a good start. Rose chuckled.

“I wondered,” she admitted. “Some of the things Carrie said about your timeline… Well, I already tried to make my peace with death once. Maybe it won’t be so bad this time.”

 _I hate that I died,_ Luke wrote. _I love Julie –_ he scribbled out Julie’s name and wrote, _the band. I wouldn’t trade this. But I hate that I didn’t get to live._

It took Rose a minute to read – as he wrote faster his handwriting went back to normal – but she smiled ruefully down at the paper.

“You’re telling me I’m allowed to be upset,” she said. “That I can rage and cry and hate this. But you don’t have children.”

Luke lowered the pen and paper, pausing in his next note to her.

“Carlos, I assume you know him?” Rose said. “He is ten. And you, you’re around my daughter’s age, you know how young she really is. I want to be furious that this is taking me away from them, and I am. But I can’t let them see.”

Luke got that, he really did. But if there was one thing he, and all his friends, had learned over the past few months, it was that there were some things you couldn’t protect people from.

 _I ran away from home before I died. Didn’t talk to my mom. If she’d told me she was afraid…_ He wasn’t sure how to finish that. It wasn’t the same. But at the same time, if he’d realised then how much of their fights were bound up in the fact that his mom was a real, scared person, maybe things would have been different.

He tried not to think like that, usually. Especially when you were surrounded by time travel, it was a nasty spiral that only distracted from things that really mattered. He had the band. He had Julie and Reggie, and all their friends.

But he was also literally talking to a walking, talking what-if.

“I can’t go in there and tell her there’s nothing to do,” Rose said. “It was bad enough the first time, being sick and knowing I couldn’t do anything. Now? Now I have to look my daughter in the eyes, with her knowing about the magic I have, and tell her it won’t do anything.”

Well, that was that question answered. Luke tried to think of something to say, but his plans for comforting Rose had run out.

“Which one are you? I never asked,” Rose said with a smile. “Not Willie, I’ve seen his handwriting.”

“Man, why does everybody write better than me?” Luke asked. _Luke_ , he wrote quickly, his handwriting maybe a little spikier than it needed to be out of annoyance.

Rose raised an eyebrow.

“The guitarist?” she asked.

Luke realised belatedly that she had absolutely changed the subject. However, it felt weird to change the subject back, so he wrote _yes_.

She nodded.

“That –“ Rose tapped the scribbled out spot on the page. “That says Julie, doesn’t it?”

Luke snatched the paper away, mortified.

“No!” he said quickly, before remembering that saying that did absolutely nothing.

“Thank you for looking out for her,” Rose said gently. “All of you.”

 _She looks out for us, too,_ Luke wrote. _We’re family_.

Rose’s breath caught as she read that last note.

“I think it’s time to talk to Julie about this,” she said. She looked up from the paper. “Thank you.”

Luke shrugged uncomfortably. He hadn’t really done anything. Just tried to do what Julie would do for any of them.

Rose smiled sadly, like she could sense his discomfort, before approaching the studio door. With a sigh and a shake of her head, she opened the studio and stepped back inside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did this go at all how I expected? Nope. But I'm ok with that.  
> I have a lot of thoughts about the way Luke and Julie draw similarities between themselves with regard to their mothers, when their situations are so incredibly different on the surface? I love them. This is a story about moms. You're welcome I guess.  
> Also, like. let kids know that their authority figures are people, who make mistakes and have emotions and don't know what to do. Adults are just kids who grew up. I have many Feelings.  
> Next time, one last conversation before Rose and Julie come back to each other - what were Willie and Alex up to while Luke talked to Rose?


	28. A Little Taste

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Memory and time travel logic is rehashed, and probably not any less confusing than it was the last time we did this, but what's really important is the bonding.

As Alex forced himself to look away from Rose, he caught Willie’s gaze.

“Are you ok?” Willie asked.

“Hey, you’re the one who went back to the club,” Alex said, because he honestly wasn’t sure how to answer. “I think I should be asking you.”

“Yeah, what was that like?” Reggie asked, looking away from his not-a-conversation with Nick. “I know you told us about Caleb’s spell, but… What about Dante? And that woman, uh…”

“Genevieve, right?” Alex said, remembering the other ghost they’d talked to that last night at the club.

“Yeah,” Willie said. He looked between Alex and Reggie with a surprised kind of pleasure on his face. “You know them?”

“I mean, Dante helped us when we were trying to get you free from Caleb,” Reggie said. “And Genevieve helped you and Julie, when Caleb had you at the club.”

Willie looked at Alex, who shrugged. Carrie had skimmed that part, mostly just touching on Julie’s truce with Caleb and her discovery of magic, but he didn’t really have anything to add to Reggie’s story. With any luck, Willie would remember it for himself soon enough.

Not that it felt like luck. Alex glanced over at Rose. Luke was back, writing her notes, and Alex tore his eyes away before he could see something Rose wouldn’t want him to.

“So did they believe you about Caleb?” Reggie asked, reminding Alex what they’d been talking about.

“Not at first,” Willie said. “I mean, we all know Caleb can get pretty dark, but we always thought he’d never do that to _us_ , you know?”

Alex did know. Willie had said things like that before, back in the other timeline.

“But he as good as admitted it, and Dante and Genevieve are the reason I got out of there,” Willie said. “They weren’t too happy when they realised he really would hurt lifers. I mean, a ghost that will do that, whose power literally comes from other ghosts?”

His face fell as he spoke, like he was just now realising what that meant.

“If Caleb will kill people,” he said slowly. “How many ghosts could he have made?”

Alex reached out, unable to keep looking at Willie’s hurt, fearful face, and he pulled Willie into a hug without thinking. He stiffened as soon as he realised what he’d done, but before he could push himself away Willie relaxed into the hug, digging his fingers into Alex’s sweatshirt.

After a moment, Willie pulled away, offering Alex a nervous smile.

“Sorry,” he said.

“What – no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have –“

“I just feel bad, since I don’t –“

“No, I should have at least asked if you wanted a hug –“

“Yeah, but I don’t want to upset you since I know I’m not your Willie –“

“You are,” Alex blurted. Willie stared at him.

“We don’t have the same memories,” Alex said. “But you’re still Willie.”

He smiled faintly.

“You guys are so cute,” Reggie said with a sniffle.

“Dude, seriously?” Alex asked as Willie cackled.

“What? My boyfriend is talking to my girlfriend’s mom, while my girlfriend can’t see or remember me, I think I’m allowed to have emotions over you two!” Reggie exclaimed indignantly.

“So how does that work, ghosts and a lifer?” Willie asked. “I mean, I guess you don’t have to be able to touch to have a relationship, but…”

“Oh, no, Julie can touch us now,” Reggie said. “Ever since the Orpheum. And she can touch you, too, but that’s because of the Instrument.”

“Seriously?” Willie asked.

“We have so many group hugs,” Reggie informed him seriously.

“So… if we go back and stop Caleb and Ava from casting this spell,” Willie said. “Do I just remember everything?”

Alex looked at Reggie, who was bouncing in excitement.

“I know this one!” he said eagerly. “So, if you don’t go back with us, you never know this world was here. But if you do, when we get back to the future – the present? The future – then it’s like the timeline just fits over top of these memories, so you remember what you did while we were all here but you don’t remember the backstory stuff. That’s what happened to Flynn, the first time.”

Willie looked over at Alex.

“I just kind of go with it,” he said. “We know how to fix your memories now if anything goes wrong, so there’s nothing to worry about.”

“That… kind of makes me worry,” Willie said.

“Nah, Julie’s got it covered,” Reggie said. “And you don’t have to worry, it’d probably just be the three of us and Carrie who need help with that.”

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s helping,” Alex said. “Willie, do you… I mean, you don’t have to come with us. To change the past, I mean.”

He felt a moment of guilt for assuming that was what they’d do, but he also doubted Julie or Rose would want all those other people to be dead, just for their sake.

“Do you not want me to?” he asked.

“No!” Alex said. “Look, I want you to know everything we’ve done together. That includes all this. But it’s… hard.”

He hadn’t done a lot of time travel himself – none, really – but he’d seen the effect it had on the others. Reggie’s fears and desperation, the way Carrie had lost her nerve as the current events dragged on, Flynn and Julie struggling to keep them all together in spite of the time travel and memory problems. He knew how much Willie had hated being confronted with the fact that his relationship with Alex had only happened because Alex died young.

“It’s a lot to deal with, and you deserve the chance to just… not do it.”

Willie looked Alex in the eyes with a small, unreadable smile on his face.

“I want to remember,” he said. “Even footing. I’ve forgotten enough about you already, right?”

“Aw,” said Reggie, but Alex didn’t spare a glance at him, too busy looking at Willie. He’d messed up so much between them this time, and yet Willie still gave him a chance.

“Even footing,” Alex agreed. Willie’s smile grew.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear the time travel and memory logic makes sense. I promise. I spent a really long time hashing it out and I'm quite sure there's internal logic.  
> (I'm so sorry)  
> anyway more softness than sadness this time! a little Willex with bonus Reggie before we get into the last few discussions and the final confrontation of the fic. Since next time we're getting Rose and Julie at last, I wanted a breather and a bit of hope for you all, as well as a conclusion to this Willex subplot


	29. Let Your Body Loose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It is time for many things. Julie asks a question and Rose apologises.

Nick wasn’t sure what he was doing here anymore, or if he was even wanted, but it felt wrong to leave when everyone was in such a bad place. Anyway, he knew how Julie was feeling better than anybody. If there was anything he could offer, he wanted to do it.

So when he saw Julie’s mom return to the studio, he pushed down his nerves and followed her in, hoping he wouldn’t make anything worse.

“Julie,” Rose said as Nick poked his head inside. Flynn and Julie were hip-to-hip, with Flynn’s arm around Julie. Carrie was sitting in the chair that faced them, but she’d twisted around and draped her arms and chin over the back of it to see Rose. Nick had never seen her sit like that before.

Carrie caught sight of him and gave him a tiny, encouraging smile. Nick had never seen her smile like that before, either. He took another step inside.

“Mom,” Julie said, leaving Flynn’s grasp to fling herself into her mother’s arms, burying her face in Rose’s jacket. Nick looked away. Carrie was whispering furiously to midair – to a ghost? – and shaking her head.

“There’s a way to fix this, right? So nobody has to die?” Flynn asked as soon as Julie relaxed her grip on her mom. Nick looked to Rose, though he didn’t have much hope. The way she’d looked outside had been familiar – it was the way Nick felt when his little sister asked about their mom. It was the look on his dad’s face when he thought Nick and Rachel weren’t looking. Rose expected to die from this.

“If there was a magical way to heal me, I would have done it,” Rose said. She cupped Julie’s cheek. “ _Mija_ , I wouldn’t have let you watch me get worse. The only ways I know to heal myself were…”

“What Caleb and Ava did to my mom,” Nick finished for her when her voice failed. “And all those other women?”

His voice faltered at the end, too, and everyone turned to look at him with pity that he didn’t particularly enjoy seeing, but at least he got it out in the open. Rose reached out, beckoning him closer.

“Yes,” she said as Nick approached nervously. “And Julie, I’m sorry, but all those people –“

“I know,” Julie said. “It wouldn’t be fair. And if we can bring them all back, that’s better than you and everybody else dying.”

Julie’s mom looked rueful.

“You’ve really thought all of this through,” she said. “I’m proud of you, but I wish you didn’t have to.”

“If this hadn’t happened,” Julie said. “And this was just a world where you lived and there were no ghosts or anything. Would you ever have told me about the magic?”

Nick tensed. Flynn and Carrie looked just as alarmed. As voyeuristic as he’d felt a minute ago, this felt like spying on somebody while standing in a minefield.

“After you were born, I had one last adventure,” Rose said quietly. “Somebody had a family curse they wanted me to lift. But as it turned out, the person who cast it was still around, and I nearly brought that trouble home with me.

“ _Mija_ , I didn’t want to make my danger yours. I wasn’t going to put you at risk because I can’t resist a good mystery. I wanted to tell you when I was sure you’d be able to face whatever came for you, but it’s so hard to tell. Especially from a mother’s eyes.”

“I guess you know I can handle it now,” Julie muttered.

“You should never have had to,” her mom told her. She looked around the room, her eyes pausing on first Flynn, then Carrie, and finally Nick.

“None of you should,” she said. “And I’m sorry for every moment that you could have been spared if I had told the truth.”

“I mean,” Julie said quietly. “At least it sounds like it worked out.” She looked over at Carrie, who nodded.

“I think it did,” she said quietly.

“It seems like it,” Rose said, looking between Carrie and Julie with a sad smile.

Nick’s phone started to ring, startling them all. His stomach grew heavy when he saw it was his dad calling.

“Hey,” he said.

“Nick, are you still at your friend’s house?”

“Uh…” He was now at a different friend’s house, which was probably going to be interesting to explain. “Sort of?”

“Nick, just tell me where you are so I can come get you,” his dad said bluntly. “Your mom has gotten worse. There may –“

He broke off. When Nick’s dad spoke again, his voice gentled.

“There may not be much time.”

“I – I’m at Julie’s,” Nick said. “Look, just – one of my friend’s parents can get me there. Just worry about you and Rachel, ok?”

“Nick…” his dad said.

“I’ll be there,” Nick said, half-hoping that maybe he was lying. Maybe they’d change everything now, and he never had to look his dying mother in the eyes.

“Ok,” his dad said. “Nick – Look, I’m sorry. You’ve been taking care of Rachel since this happened, and I should never –“

“Dad,” Nick said. “We can talk about that later. We have a lot to think about already.”

“You know it’s my job to look after you, as much as I need to look after Rachel,” his dad said quietly. “You don’t have to be brave.”

Nick blinked back tears.

“I know,” he said. “I’ll get a ride. I’ll see you soon.”

He hung up and looked at everyone else.

“Did you, um…” Nick swallowed.

“Is it your mom?” Julie asked. Nick nodded, and she stepped closer and hugged him gently. He rested his head on her shoulder and tried not to cry.

“If we’re changing things back,” Carrie spoke up. “Who wants to come with?”

Nick lifted his head, confused.

“Whoever comes, remembers,” Carrie said. That made sense; she was offering Nick the chance to never even know this had happened.

But the places where Julie’s hands had rested were still warm on his back. He remembered the desperation with which Carrie had asked him to remember.

He had no idea what his relationship was like with Rachel, his dad, his _mom_ , in this other world. For all he knew, there were moments he’d want to keep.

“I’m coming,” Julie said.

“Obviously, if she is I am,” Flynn said.

Carrie looked to the side, in that way that Nick was learning meant she was listening to at least one ghost.

“Like I ‘d let any of you stay behind,” she said scornfully.

“I want to remember,” Nick said. “I don’t –“ He wasn’t sure how to put it. Nick just wanted Julie to know there was somebody who understood.

And if he went, he could admit to himself in the privacy of his own head, it would be the first time he didn’t have to be brave. He wouldn’t have to go see his mom in her last moments, because there would be no last moments for a long time.

Nick wasn’t about to take anyone or anything for granted anymore. He’d take every minute he could get.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is not the only time Rose and Julie talk, but it is the logistical one. There are two conversations left! Ahhhh!  
> Literally we have five chapters remaining, this fic has gone on for so long I can't believe we're almost done. Resolution is on the horizon!  
> Next time, as Rose prepares herself Julie gets to talk with her other secret ghost boyfriend. That's right! Reggie time, at last! Our boy has been so patient, this is what he deserves.


	30. Happiness Is Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The search for the perfect timeline.

Reggie stood just behind Julie’s shoulder, hoping her magic senses could tell he was trying to give her support. Rose looked around the room at each of the living teenagers. Reggie pretended her eyes stopped on him and the other ghosts, too, because that made him feel better.

“Give me a few minutes,” she said softly. “I know no one will remember, but…”

Reggie felt guilty. They hadn’t been thinking about Carlos or Ray. He’d thought about how much he missed hanging out with them, but he hadn’t considered the fact that, for all that they didn’t know, _they’d_ gotten Rose back, too.

“Mom –“ Julie blurted, but she didn’t seem to have anything to say after that. Instead, she darted forward and gave her mom one last quick hug.

Reggie _hated_ that he couldn’t talk to Julie. He loved this girl, and he just had to watch her do this alone? Without any of her band to help her?

“Are you ok?” Alex asked him quietly. “You look kind of…” He made a face. Reggie realised he was nearly vibrating with nervous energy and tried to calm down. He really only succeeded in turning it from a full-body bounce to a tremor in his hands and knees.

“Hey, Julie, while your mom does that,” Carrie announced loudly, startling everyone. “I know a ghost who wants to talk to you.”

“What? No!” Reggie yelped. “Carrie!”

“Do you not want to?” she asked. Reggie was about eighty percent sure she’d back off if he said that he didn’t, but also he really, really did.

“Flynn, Nick, let’s go talk somewhere else,” Carrie said loudly after a few seconds of awkward silence. “Ghost boys, you’re on your own.”

Rose half-smiled as Carrie passed, one hand on Flynn’s shoulder and the other pushing at Nick as she reached him.

“Julie?” she said. “Do you want to come with me or stay here?”

“I’ll stay here,” Julie said. “I had a few questions, anyway.” Rose smiled at her, then looked up in the general direction of Reggie and the other ghosts. She looked like she wanted to say something, then shook her head. With a last fond touch to Julie’s cheek, she left the studio.

“So,” Julie said. “A ghost wants to talk. Which one of you is it?”

“Do you want us to stick around? Or do you want us to leave?” Luke asked Reggie quietly. Reggie honestly hadn’t considered the possibility that Luke would leave. “I mean, I already got to talk to Julie. And you two went through all the time travel stuff together.”

Reggie looked over at Julie. She looked expectant, but nervous – like she was waiting for a bus she wasn’t sure would come.

“Yeah,” he said. There were maybe some things he wasn’t ready to admit to Luke, about how he felt about all this. “That’d be good.”

“Just shout if you need us,” Luke said. Reggie hugged his boyfriend quickly, and when he pulled away he tried for a sunny smile and wave at Alex and Willie. Neither of them looked like they believed it, but they left willingly enough.

Then it was just Reggie and Julie.

“I have no idea if you’ve been talking this whole time or what, but I should probably remind you I have no idea what’s going on over on the ghost side of things,” Julie said awkwardly.

“Oh, right!” Reggie said. He searched around for something to write with, before remembering he could still be heard when they played. He scrambled toward the piano, playing a few chords to start.

“ _This is Reggie, I was wondering if you’re doing all right right now,”_ he sang, his voice a little pitchy with nerves. The tune came out almost exactly like “Finally Free,” but he wasn’t exactly trying for new artistic heights at the moment.

Julie giggled.

“I think you know the answer,” she said, leaning on the piano and staring in his direction. “Is that all? Just checking up on me?”

“ _Of course it is_ ,” Reggie said, barely managing to match it to a tune. He didn’t know how to sing his way through an explanation that making sure Julie was ok was important, no other concerns required, so he left the piano and looked around for paper and pen once more. When he’d found it, he started to scribble down a better answer to Julie.

_I feel like we brought you all our trouble, and I know it’s not our fault what Caleb did, but it’s not fair. You have a good mom. A good family. I never wanted to mess with that._

He frowned down at the page, realised that his last sentence kind of made it all about him, and quickly added, _None of us did_.

Julie was quiet for a moment.

“Thank you,” she said. She looked up, nearly looking directly at Reggie. “Reggie. You’re the one who was there with the first time travel thing Carrie told me about, right?”

 _Yeah_ , Reggie wrote.

“So this happened to you,” Julie said. “Those other ghosts, Luke and Alex, they were brought back to life.”

Reggie tapped his previous “ _yeah_ ” with the pen.

“Do you feel guilty?” Julie asked.

This was the kind of thing he hadn’t wanted Luke to hear.

 _I brought them the hot dogs that killed us,_ Reggie wrote. _Not originally, but – that’s not important. I did it. I remember doing it. They remember it._

“You didn’t know,” Julie said quickly.

 _Not when I did it, but I was there later,_ Reggie said. _I said it was ok_.

“Luke said something like that, too,” Julie said. “That you… chose this.”

Of course he had. Reggie tapped the pen nervously on the paper.

 _I didn’t want to leave you and Flynn and Willie alone,_ he wrote. _And there’s no point trying to erase things and change them. I don’t want to keep chasing the perfect timeline. I could be alive, grow up, we all could. But I help Flynn paint her nails. I have movie nights with Willie and Carlos and Ray. You and I wrote a song together. Every show the band puts on and every time we hang out with our friends and all the magic stuff I know is real now, why trade it? Nobody else gets any of this._

“What would the perfect timeline be?” Julie asked. “If it wasn’t time travel. If there weren’t any consequences.”

“I mean, I just said I didn’t want to think about it,” Reggie blurted. But Julie just waited, and he realised maybe it wasn’t so much her asking for optimism that wouldn’t work as it was her wondering what he was like.

 _Your mom is alive. You write music together all the time. We have the band_ , he started. _Julie and the Phantoms. But we don’t have to be ghosts. If we’re holograms, it’s real, it’s for fun, we get to hang out after school every day. We had this whole plan, we get super famous off our albums and then we do a country album so I can play banjo and there’s all this dramatic publicity but we’re all ok in the end._

“I guess we get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, too?” Julie said with an indulgent grin. He’d missed that. It was her Reggie-look, mostly, him and Luke.

 _Obviously_. Reggie thought for a minute. _Luke and his parents are good. Alex’s family know he’s gay, they’re cool, he’s dating Willie who’s alive and lives with his family and not Caleb. All the Hollywood Ghost Club is ok. Flynn manages our band and Carrie’s. We all go to Nick’s sister’s dance recitals every year._

Julie had moved over to look over his shoulder as he wrote, watching each word appear on the page. Reggie couldn’t resist glancing at her every few seconds. Her face was so close to his, he could see her eyelashes individually, and Julie had no idea.

“And Flynn and Carrie are dating like in the world you come from,” Julie said.

_Yeah, and I make us all go on group dates and everybody complains but actually it’s a highlight of the month –_

“Are you dating someone?” Julie asked. Reggie’s hand slipped, making a jagged line of ink across the words he’d already written.

“You and Luke?” Julie asked. “He looked at you a lot when you were singing.”

That was a surprise. Luke usually watched Julie. Reggie couldn’t blame him. He did it, too.

“It was like every time he wasn’t looking at you, you looked at him,” Julie continued obliviously. She eyed the paper, apparently realising Reggie hadn’t written anything recently. “Oh, no, don’t tell me you were pining for him and he’s pining for you and neither one of you has said anything because if I walked into the middle of that –“

 _No!_ Reggie wrote quickly. _We are dating._

“So who am I going on group dates with, then?” Julie asked playfully. “Because Nick and I tried that for about three seconds here, and I don’t know if you know, but that doesn’t really… work for him? We’re friends.”

 _I know_ , Reggie wrote. _I don’t want to tell you that you’re dating somebody. You don’t owe them anything._

“Well, what if I want to know? What if I’m tired of being blindsided by secrets?” Julie said, stepping back to glare at the general space Reggie occupied. He wondered how it was that she was so good at pinpointing his location, even now.

“Ok,” Reggie said. “Ok, this is fine. She just wants to know who she’s dating, because you had the bright idea of implying that she was dating someone, and you’re going to either lie to your girlfriend or tell her she’s your girlfriend. This is fine.”

He looked at the paper, trying to plan.

“Whoever it is,” Julie said quietly. “Do you know if – Have I told them…”

There was one thing Reggie could think of that Julie would be nervous about telling somebody, especially a partner.

 _You’re ace?_ he wrote slowly.

“Yeah,” Julie said. “I’m out?”

 _To all of us but Ray and Carlos,_ Reggie wrote. _We were helping you figure out how you wanted to bring it up._

She smiled. Reggie set the pen down and stared at her for a minute. It was amazing how often she smiled, even now.

“I was going to come out to Mom soon,” Julie said. “And now… I guess it’s my last chance? But if she takes it badly…”

 _She won’t_ , Reggie insisted immediately, tapping the page for emphasis. He’d seen how Rose was with Julie, and with Carlos too a little. He couldn’t believe Rose would ever hurt Julie like that.

Julie leaned over to read his latest message.

“This conversation would go so much better if I could actually talk to you,” she said wryly as she pulled back. A second later, she squeaked and stumbled backwards.

“Julie? Are you ok?”

Julie stared directly at him.

“I’m fine,” she said.

“Oh, good,” Reggie said, returning to his paper and pen so he could talk to her more. He looked at the page, then back at Julie. She was watching him with raised eyebrows.

“Oh! Julie! Julie, you can see me!” Reggie exclaimed, reaching out to grab her arms in excitement. His hands passed through, and his heart dropped with them. He and Julie stared down at his hands for a moment.

“We can talk now,” Julie said after a moment.

“Yeah,” Reggie said, looking back up at her. “If I could hug you, Julie, I’d be hugging you so hard.”

She laughed sadly.

“Thanks, Reggie,” she said. He held out the pen to her, and she curled her hand around it.

“I really am sorry about everything,” Reggie said. “I know it’s not my fault, but… You deserve your mom.”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“Thank you,” she said.

“It’s you,” he blurted. Julie tilted her head in confusion.

“Or, it’s me and Luke. The answer to your question,” he admitted. He didn’t want to lie to her.

“My…” Julie’s eyes widened. “About the group dates?”

“Yeah,” Reggie said sheepishly, letting go of the pen to brush at his hair nervously. “Sorry?”

“Sorry?” Julie said incredulously. “I – _Reggie_. You’ve been really sweet. You and Luke both have.”

“Oh, well, that’s good. Usually we’re really bad at helping girls who are crying,” Reggie said. “You’re not mad?”

“I asked,” Julie said. “And… look, maybe if you’d told me right away I’d have been more upset. But I know you did everything to make sure I never had to know about my mom. You said it yourself, you didn’t want me to think I owed you anything. So thank you.”

“I wish it was more than just what I want to do,” Reggie said. “I wish I could actually help.”

Julie glanced at the paper on which he’d written his ideal timeline.

“There’s no point wishing for that, right?” she said. “No perfect timelines. Just trying our best with what we have.”

“We’ve got a lot,” Reggie offered nervously. “I mean, not that we could ever replace your mom, but you’re not just missing out on everything.”

Julie looked sceptical at first, but as Reggie rambled on, the expression melted into a tiny, almost-fond smile. “I’m starting to believe that.”

“Julie?”

Reggie and Julie both turned to see Rose in the doorway.

“Are you done with your ghost?” she asked, uncharacteristically nervous.

“Yeah,” Julie said. “Reggie, could you –“

“Already gone,” he said quickly, poofing away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do have Reasons for why Julie was able to see Reggie at the end (it's about the love and the emotional connection and also the discovery of her magic! I swear, my internal logic is vague but consistent!) which may come up when she talks to Rose, but... as you can imagine there's still plenty of ground for them to cover. Julie's doing ok when she's with other people, but when confronted with her mother and only her mother there's a little more that has to come out.  
> This means that a private Rose and Julie conversation is our next chapter, and our last Big Conversation Chapter before the resolution.


	31. Your Soul Print

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A song is sung as it was meant to be.

Julie had so much to say to her mom. That she was sorry, that she’d try to look after everyone, that she hoped her mother was proud. She wanted to take the chance to come out to her mother, to tell her everything about her day at school in the way her parents always wanted her to, to ask her for every piece of advice her mother had ever wanted to provide.

She didn’t say anything.

“Were you talking to the ghost just now?” her mom asked finally.

“Reggie,” Julie said. “I – I saw him.”

Her mom looked positively tormented for a second.

“Death magic will do that,” she said softly. Julie didn’t think she was supposed to hear.

“This is stupid,” Julie said, overcome with a sudden anger. She’d been nice to everyone, she’d understood how hard this was for them, but this was _her mom_! And Julie was just supposed to let her go.

“Julie…”

“This isn’t fair! Why should I have to lose you, why should you have to do this? And don’t tell me it’s not anybody’s fault but those evil ghosts. Don’t tell me that you would be dead anyway. I want my mom!”

To Julie’s embarrassment, she nearly stamped her foot like a toddler throwing a tantrum. She caught herself mid-motion and lowered her foot slowly.

“I know, _mija_ ,” her mother said quietly.

“There’s no _point_ to you dying,” Julie said. “You just got sick one day, and now everything else is terrible because of that? Why do we have to be punished with something that should be _good_? You’re back. You’re alive. You’re fine!”

Her mother finally came forward, reaching out to hug Julie.

“Julie, my precious little _nena_ , it’ll be –“

“Don’t tell me it’ll be fine! It can’t be fine, it can’t be ok! Not without you,” Julie said, tearing herself away from her mom’s grasp.

She felt silly and small and young, standing there crying about how it wasn’t fair when she knew there were so many other people’s lives at stake. Julie half expected her mother to look disgusted with her for how selfish she was being.

But her mom just looked sad, and she didn’t say anything. Julie sniffed. Her cheeks itched with slowly drying tears.

“I’m sorry,” she said, looking down in shame. “I know – I know a whole bunch of other people lost their moms, just for a few more months with you.”

“Julie, you’re allowed to be angry,” her mom said. “So am I.”

Julie stared at her in shock.

“Do you think I want to leave you and Carlos? And your father can’t keep track of his own phone most days, I’m a little worried about leaving that man alone without supervision.”

Julie nearly giggled, thinking of the morning routine where her mom would slap various things into her dad’s hand as she passed by after finding the keys in the fridge or his phone on top of Carlos’s wardrobe. He remembered the things that really mattered, but he definitely had a bad habit of leaving things strewn all over in odd places.

“See?” her mom said softly. “It’s terrifying. It’s horrible. I wouldn’t put you through this if I felt like I had any other choice. But you will smile again, _mija_. Look at all those people out there, your friends who are looking after you! You already have smiled.”

“It won’t be the same,” Julie said.

“No,” her mom said. “I know. And I can’t make it better, when it’s taking everything I have not to scream and cry with you. But I won’t be gone, _mija_. You know that. I’m too stubborn not to look after you from heaven.”

Julie nodded, not trusting herself to speak without shouting again.

“Come here,” her mother said, leading Julie over to the piano. She lifted the lid on the piano bench and withdrew a few sheets of handwritten music, patting the bench once the lid was back down. “Sit,” Julie’s mom invited her.

As Julie did, her mom spread out the music before her. It was one she’d been working on when they thought she was going to die, over a year ago – she’d consulted Julie on the second verse, but Julie had been so caught up in anger and fear she’d never even heard much of it, and she’d never played or sang it.

Julie’s mother placed a kiss on the top of Julie’s head and sat alongside her.

“I was worried, the first time, that I’d never get the chance to sing this with you,” she told Julie. “You’re right. It’s cruel that we got this extra time at so much expense. But I’m glad we’re here now.”

She set her hands on the keys and raised an eyebrow in challenge. Julie took a shaky breath. Her mom’s last request, in a way.

She set her hands on the keys as well, one octave higher. Her mom nodded her head four times, giving them both the tempo, and then they started to play.

“ _Here’s one thing I want you to know, you got someplace to go,”_ her mom sang to Julie, not taking her eyes off of Julie. At first Julie watched the notes, then her hands, but she couldn’t avoid her own mother’s gaze forever, especially when she remembered far more of the music than she thought. When she finally met her mother’s gaze, she was startled by the way her mom’s face filled with pride.

Her mother finished the chorus, then nudged Julie gently in the side. Julie faltered, not sure if she was ready, curling her fingers back in and off the piano for a second. Her mom looped back through the same phrase, waiting.

Julie lifted her gaze, looking at the studio as it was for maybe the last time. Who knew what it was like without her mother?

Three faces disappeared below the edge of the windows in the door. Julie recognised them: the three boys who had played her mother’s other song for her.

She scoffed fondly, wondering if they’d ever heard this song before, and looked at the lyrics. Her mom went through the same measures again, and this time as she finished Julie took a breath and started to play again.

“ _Better wake those demons, just look ‘em in the eye,”_ she sang. Her mom took her right hand off in order to give Julie a quick side hug and press another kiss to her hair.

This time, when they reached the chorus, they sang it together. As the song wound to a close, Julie looked up again. This time, there were seven people peeking in: four ghosts, three living people.

“ _Wake up,”_ Julie sang alone, smiling in spite of herself when she saw Reggie wink at her. “ _Wake up.”_

Her mom played the last few notes and then set her hands in her lap. Julie let the last note ring out for a few seconds, trying to go through the list of things she’d wanted to say. They shouldn’t leave this for too long. There was no real time limit, but it felt wrong when Nick’s mom was dying.

“I have a few things left I want to say,” Julie said. Her mom nodded solemnly, looking like she was bracing herself for a blow.

“I get why you didn’t tell me about the magic,” Julie said. “I’m biromantic asexual, which means a lot of things and I don’t know if you know what it means but I don’t really feel ready to explain it, I just wanted you to know because this is the only real chance I have to come out to you, and also apparently I’m dating two guys in the other timeline?”

Her mother’s eyebrows went up. Julie barrelled on before she could find out if her mom had any suspicions about who those two guys were, because that would be _such_ a weird conversation.

“And I love you,” Julie said. “I love you so much.”

Her mom cupped Julie’s cheek, then pulled her into a hug. Julie relaxed into the hug for the last time, breathing in her mother’s scent, trying to memorise everything about this moment.

“Ok,” Julie said finally. “We should do this, before any of us lose our nerve, right?”

“That sounds like a good plan,” Julie’s mom said softly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Look, the pronoun shifts in Wake Up kill me and you cannot convince me Rose did not have every intention of singing it WITH Julie. Also, Julie deserves to be angry about this, this is some messed up stuff I have put in her path, she's just keeping it together well enough to avoid blowing up at ppl whose fault it is not.  
> I love Julie so much, this is why I make her cry. I made me cry? If that helps any?  
> At last, we've reached the point where they are ready to change things. It might be a little hard because they are about to pick a fight with ghosts almost nobody can see unless said ghosts decide they want to be seen, but hey. That was... to be expected.


	32. Break Out of the Scene

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drama! Revenge! A whole lot of pointed and obvious mockery!

“My dad wants to know what I’m doing and when I’m coming home,” Carrie announced, turning away from the studio door as Julie finished singing. Willie tore his eyes away from the scene – Julie and her mother really were magnetic performers – and watched her tap at her phone for a few seconds. “We should do this soon, if we’re doing it today.”

Willie looked over at Alex and his friends. As he watched, Luke wrapped one arm around Reggie’s shoulders and one arm around Alex, pulling them in close. Just past them, Nick and Flynn were watching Carrie solemnly.

“When Julie’s ready,” Luke said. Carrie met his eyes and nodded.

“I know,” she said.

As though she’d been summoned, Julie pushed open the doors to the studio, forcing Nick and Flynn back. Willie let the door pass through him, not because he didn’t care but because he realised Julie was looking straight at him.

He raised a hand tentatively and waved at her. Julie’s lips twitched.

“Oh, yeah! Julie saw me!” Reggie burst out excitedly. “You can see Willie, too?”

“I guess I can see all of you,” Julie said.

“Uh, you’re talking to ghosts, right? That’s what’s going on right now?” Flynn asked quickly.

“Yeah,” Julie said. A look of incredulity crossed her face for a moment. Willie couldn’t blame her. It was strange enough, having found one lifer who could see and hear and touch him. Now there were two?

“Are you and your mom… are you ready?” Carrie asked. Willie hadn’t known her that long, but he’d known her long enough to be surprised by the gentle quality to her tone. She wasn’t fearful, not like when she’d been trying to tell Julie the truth.

“I am,” Rose said, startling them all.

“We both are,” Julie said. Then she frowned. “What exactly are we doing?”

“Well, we need the Instrument back from Caleb and Ava,” Carrie said. Willie tensed.

“I didn’t exactly leave them in a great place earlier,” he said slowly. “I think they were about three seconds from a rebellion.”

“Good,” Carrie said. “That’s a good distraction.”

“What is?” Flynn burst out.

Carrie launched into a terse explanation of what had happened, and Willie threw in details he hadn’t had the chance to tell her before. The other lifers, none of whom remembered ever meeting Caleb, grew more and more worried as Carrie explained what, exactly, he was capable of.

“It’s ok, though, right? You said he was weakened by his spell,” Alex spoke up.

“Yeah,” Willie said. “But who knows what he’ll do now that we know.”

Julie sucked in a sharp, horrified breath. Willie winced. He’d forgotten that she could hear them now.

“Let’s go, then, before Caleb has a chance to plan,” Carrie said.

“Right,” Julie said. “And you said he’s afraid of my magic.”

“I think any of you could take him,” Reggie spoke up. “And Rose is like, a super-cool witchy expert, right? We can totally handle Caleb and Ava.”

“I hope you’re right,” Julie said.

Rose started to usher the lifers to her car. Willie hung back.

“Should we just… go there?” he asked.

“I mean, if we get there before them we’re in trouble, it’s Julie and Flynn and Rose that can kick Caleb’s butt,” Luke said.

“We should at least see what we can find out,” Alex said. “So they can know going in how much the other ghosts are pushing back against Caleb.”

“Hasn’t he still got Willie’s soul?” Reggie asked.

“Are you guys coming?” Carrie called.

“We’ll meet you there!” Luke shouted back. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, but sat down in the car with a haughty toss of her hair and closed the door. The four ghosts looked at each other.

“We give them time to get almost all the way there,” Luke said. “Then we check what things are like in the club. Willie’s protected here at the house, right?”

Willie could only shrug. He wasn’t sure how any of it worked, honestly.

“Have any of them even been to the club before?” Alex asked. “I mean, that they remember?”

“Carrie went with Flynn, didn’t she?” Luke said. “Anyway, we’ll be there to help.”

“Yeah, I mean… Willie, you could wait outside for them while we check it out,” Alex said.

“Caleb’s my problem,” Willie said. “I’m not staying where it’s safe.”

Alex frowned like he wanted to argue, but he just shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded.

“Ok,” he said.

After a few more minutes, the boys figured enough time had passed that the lifers were nearing the club. Luke and Reggie were the first ones to disappear. Alex hesitated for a second before joining them.

Willie took one last moment to look around at the carefully tended yet overgrown plants, the bright interior of the studio even when all the lights were off. Everything about this place, and the Molina family, and all these new people, seemed carefully calculated to pull him in. It was everything he wanted – friends, family, the simplicity of being touched without any favours or meaning.

But then, it wasn’t calculated at all. Caleb’s club had been, and now all Willie could see was design.

He really, _really_ wanted this to be a place that was genuinely as good as it looked. No backstage, no sets and costumes that don’t hold up under inspection, no flying the lights in and out every day to make sure the warm glow of home was there. He liked performing.

But Caleb had always put on a show even for the people who were meant to be in the show with him, and Willie could admit that he wanted something more than that.

He followed Alex.

“You’re here!” was the first thing Alex said, relief obvious in his face and his voice. They all stood outside the building that housed Caleb’s club. Reggie and Luke were speaking in rapid, hushed whispers.

“Sorry,” Willie said. “I needed a minute.”

“Are you ok?” Luke asked, his and Reggie’s conversation apparently done.

“Yeah,” Willie said. “I mean, about as ok as I could be given the circumstances, but I’ll pretend that’s any good.”

Alex snorted.

“Come on,” he said, offering his hand. “Let’s go see the damage.”

The damage wasn’t obvious at first, as the club looked the way it did any afternoon before it was open. The trouble was, Willie realised as he glanced around the empty ballroom space, that the club should have been open. The dinner-and-happy-hour crowd was usually pouring in for the early evening show. Instead, the space was still and quiet, without even any ghosts running last minute checks on the show’s technical requirements.

“This feels…” Alex trailed off.

“Wrong,” Willie said.

“They’re backstage, right? They have to be,” Luke said.

“I could go check!” Reggie offered immediately.

“No!” Willie, Alex, and Luke said together.

“We stick together,” Luke said with a glance at Willie. “Who knows what Caleb is planning?”

“Right,” Reggie murmured. He took Luke’s hand and offered an apologetic smile.

“We’ve seen enough,” Willie said.

“We don’t even know where Caleb is,” Alex protested.

“If he’s been cornered by a bunch of angry ghosts, great, Dante and Genevieve know enough to let us through with Julie and the others,” Willie said. “If it’s a trap… Well, he’ll want to come out to see Julie, anyway.”

None of the others had an argument for that. Willie poofed out again, grateful that a ghost’s heart didn’t beat. If it did, there’d be no hiding the terror he was feeling.

Where _was_ everybody?

After an agonisingly long time that was, if Willie was honest, only a few minutes, Rose’s car arrived. Carrie leapt out before Rose had turned the engine off, heading straight for Willie and the other ghosts.

“You didn’t do anything stupid, did you?” she demanded immediately.

“Well,” Alex said.

“We scoped it out for you!” Reggie told her.

“You did _what?_ ” Carrie snapped. The other lifers joined her. Flynn and Nick looked like it was taking every ounce of control they had not to run away. Willie had to admit, he was impressed.

“It’s ok, nobody was in there,” Luke said.

“Nobody?” Carrie repeated. “Nobody was in this popular rich people’s club in Hollywood at dinner time?”

Flynn and Nick exchanged glances as this news hit them. Julie was just staring at the building.

“He’s in there?” she asked suddenly.

“Yeah,” Carrie said, clearly still irritated by the ghosts’ choices. Willie guiltily avoided her furious glare.

“Then let’s go,” Julie said, marching toward the door.

“I miss Kayla _so_ much right now,” Carrie muttered as she and Rose hurried after Julie.

“I feel like we’re either about to witness something really cool or really traumatising,” Flynn said to Nick. “Julie, wait up!”

“I feel like it’ll be both,” Nick muttered, following at a more reasonable pace with his hands shoved into his pockets. Willie couldn’t blame him.

The doorman spent all of three seconds trying to block the lifers’ entry, but at the twin glares of death from Julie and Carrie he backed off. Willie, who’d never really liked the doorman, took great pleasure in letting the door smack him in the face.

“ _Mija_ ,” Rose tried to say as they worked their way through the halls of the hotel, towards the club.

“I just want to get this over with,” Julie said. Willie didn’t think he was imagining the worried looks Reggie and Luke sent each other, or the way Flynn seemed about to reach out to Julie. Nobody spoke up after that, though.

In front of the closed double doors leading to the ballroom, Julie paused.

“Any advice?” she asked quietly.

“Your skill may be with death, or maybe something else here,” her mother said quietly. “But love is a magic anyone can use if they know how to reach for it, and you are full of love, Julie.”

Julie looked up at her mom, then around at everyone with her.

“I guess we all have that over Caleb,” she said. She stepped onto the balcony overlooking the stage and dancefloor.

In the next second, Caleb was there, centre stage, smiling with his arms spread wide.

“Julie!” he called. “So glad you could join us!”

“Sure you are,” Carrie muttered. She stood next to Julie, and the two girls looked at each other.

“Where’s Ava?” Willie asked, coming to stand at Julie’s other shoulder.

“With the Instrument,” Carrie said, narrowing her eyes.

“William, I see you just can’t stay away,” Caleb said. Willie realised that Caleb was _annoyed_. None of them had yet responded to his goading, and he was upset about it.

Typical.

“Well, you asked about living magic users,” Willie said. “I brought you three.”

Carrie snorted. A flicker of confusion crossed Caleb’s face.

“I’ve heard you’re one of the ghosts making my daughter’s life hard,” Rose announced, staring coldly down at Caleb. Carrie stepped back, grabbing Flynn’s hand and leading her slowly down the stairs. “And that you trade in souls.”

Caleb frowned.

“William, this game is over,” he said, and with a snap pulled Willie down to his side.

“Let him go!” Alex said, and like puppies tumbling over each other, he, Luke and Reggie arrived in front of Caleb and Willie.

“Why? When he’s finally brought you three back within my grasp?” Caleb said. He lunged for Alex’s wrist.

“No!” Willie shouted as Alex hissed, a quick flash of purple light appearing on his wrist where Caleb touched him. Alex snatched his hand away and stumbled back as Luke stepped in front of him, glaring.

“You really shouldn’t have done that,” Rose snapped. When Willie tore his gaze from Alex’s hand, wrapped around his wrist in a way Willie was all too familiar with, he saw that she, Julie, and Nick were halfway down the stairs. Carrie and Flynn were nowhere to be seen.

“And what, exactly, do you plan to do?” Caleb scoffed.

“I used to stop people like you for _fun_ ,” Rose snarled. “Petty men who think a bit of magic gives them the right to control everyone else. People who think power is more important than family. Who _exploit_ the people who love them just for a little more flash in their lives.”

“You couldn’t even see me if I didn’t want you to,” Caleb scoffed. He looked between her, Julie, and Nick. “And I don’t think I do.”

To Willie’s eyes, Caleb stayed where he was. By the looks on the lifers’ faces, he had disappeared from their view.

“You think I can’t find you?” Rose said. Caleb stood in front of her, smirking, as the woman glared around the room. “That spell took an awful lot of chances away from people. You _reek_ of lost opportunity, and that’s my specialty.”

Nick whispered in Julie’s ear as her mother spoke. Julie’s eyes widened, and she looked at Willie.

 _Where is he?_ she mouthed. Willie could have kissed Nick for the idea. Caleb couldn’t hide everyone from Julie.

“I could stop the spell right now,” Caleb said. Willie crept up behind him. Reggie looked like he was about to say something, but Luke clamped his hand over his boyfriend’s mouth.

“You will,” Alex spoke up, his eyes flicking nervously between Julie and Willie for a second before he met Caleb’s gaze. It was all a game of distractions now, and Caleb was apparently so used to winning he was forgetting to expect anything. He focused in on Alex with a broad, sickly smile, apparently unaware of Willie next to him or Julie’s gaze trained on Caleb’s back with uncanny accuracy.

“Oh, you’ve decided to come here and kill Julie’s mother after all?” Caleb mocked him.

“Nobody killed Rose!” Reggie burst out between Luke’s fingers. Luke snatched his hand away quickly, glaring at Caleb.

“Yeah, you just took advantage of this, because you know how much it would hurt Julie if she ever found out,” Luke spat.

“I assure you I had no intention of Julie ever finding out,” Caleb said. “Though I don’t mind contemplating the amount of inner turmoil she must be feeling. I’m sure it’s everything she deserves.”

Julie tapped Willie’s hand, having come up next to him.

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered to him.

“In any case,” Caleb said, wheeling around to face Rose once more. Willie scrambled to shield Julie from Caleb’s view as best he could, but Caleb only had eyes for her mother. “I’ll take the liberty of stopping the spell, since that’s what you all want.”

“He’s going for your mom, Julie, now!” Willie hissed, and then a blindingly bright light filled the room. As Willie blinked spots from his eyes, he saw a bubble of light, formed around Rose and Nick.

“Julie Molina,” Caleb said. Judging by the way Julie took a step back, she could see him again. “Always the fast learner.”

“Actually, I think Flynn’s got her beat right now,” came Carrie’s voice. She held up the Instrument as she emerged from the wings. Flynn was at her side, looking fearful but determined.

“How did you –“

“You had your new friend _freeze_ us in time, Caleb?” Genevieve asked as she appeared behind the two lifers. “Couldn’t even do your dirty work yourself?”

“We have to get to Carrie,” Alex said into Willie’s ear. Willie jumped. He hadn’t even noticed Alex approaching.

“Right, yeah,” Willie said. He tried to poof over, and found an important problem with this plan. “Caleb won’t let me move.”

“Great,” Alex muttered.

“What did you do to Ava?” Caleb asked. “Not that I’m necessarily complaining, she is possibly the worst person I’ve ever known, and I happen to be well aware of my own vices.”

“Let’s just say Flynn thinks of me as a friend,” Carrie said. Flynn snickered.

“Apparently I can throw ghosts across the room now, so that’s cool,” she said. “How are you doing, Jules?”

“I made a magic light bubble,” Julie said.

“Are you _seriously_ doing this right now?” Caleb asked. “Trading stories like it’s lunchtime at school?”

“Does it bother you?” Carrie asked eagerly. “That you’re such a nonentity we can joke about this when it’s one of the more evil things you’ve ever done?”

Willie took a step forward. He looked at Alex, who grinned.

“At least he’s predictable,” Alex said before poofing to Carrie’s side. He whispered to her, and she grinned savagely at him before turning to Flynn. Alex returned to their little cluster in the centre of the room, whispering in Julie’s ear.

“Enough!” Caleb spat. The stamp on Alex’s wrist flared, and he doubled over in pain.

“We should be saying that to you,” Flynn said. “I mean, we kind of have more important things to worry about than your temper tantrum.” Carrie was saying something to Genevieve behind her now.

“Temper tantrum?” Caleb spat. “I – Genevieve!”

With another imperious snap of his fingers, Genevieve was at Caleb’s side. She clenched her jaw, glancing back to Carrie and Flynn.

“I was having a conversation,” Genevieve told Caleb testily.

“You have conversations when I say you can,” he said in a dangerously quiet tone. “You know the stakes.”

“Apparently they’re not so high as you make people think,” Rose commented lightly. She’d ushered Nick across the floor towards Carrie and Flynn when Willie hadn’t been looking. Judging by the outrage on Caleb’s face, Willie wasn’t the only one who’d been caught off-guard. “I haven’t had to use a single spell against you. And I’ve heard you’re feeling a little drained lately.”

Willie forced himself a little further forward. More club ghosts entered the space, chatting amongst themselves with a forced breeziness. Caleb snarled.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” he said. “It won’t work. Not again.”

“So you won’t try to control them?” Julie asked. At Caleb’s look of alarm, she rolled her eyes. “They told me most of the story. And I know if you don’t try to control them, they’ll control you pretty fast.”

“Soul bonds are two-way,” Rose said with a devilish smile. Willie stared at her. He had no idea if that was true, but then again Caleb had never let anyone else learn about magic for a reason.

“Dude,” Reggie said, appearing at Willie’s side. Alex came to his other side. “Are you ready to make a break for it?”

He couldn’t move very much, still.

“No,” Willie said. “But I have an idea.”

He reached inside of himself, for that little anchor on his soul that always told him he was not his own person. Willie imagined giving it a little tug.

Caleb made a face like he was suddenly experiencing indigestion. Encouraging, but only because ghosts had no stomachs; it didn’t free Willie yet.

 _You can do it,_ came the words. It was like Rose’s voice mixed with Willie’s own thoughts, and the words wrapped around that anchor and _pushed_.

There was a sudden, balloon-like quality inside of him. Caleb stumbled, staring at Willie in horror.

“Run,” Willie said to Julie and her ghost band, and they scrambled across the room towards Carrie and Flynn.

“No!” Caleb cried as they reached Carrie. Willie could _feel_ the surge of power at his back, like heat that touched some metaphysical place, and then there was nothing.

“Mom?” Julie asked. Her shimmery little bubbles had dissipated, but now there was a wall, thick like glass, around all of them. Rose held up one hand, the other curled around a necklace Willie hadn’t paid any attention to before.

“There’s no point to bringing me,” she said quietly. “You’re all sure you want to go?”

They all looked around. Nobody backed down.

“Then go,” Rose said.

“Mom,” Julie protested one last time, but there was no heat to it.

“I love you,” Rose said.

“I love you, too,” Julie said, and the Instrument started to hum.

“Ok,” Carrie said. “I think it’s time to hold on and think of when we want to go.”

Reggie laid his hand on top of the Instrument. Then Luke and Alex in quick succession. Nick’s hand passed through theirs a split second later. Willie gingerly touched the side, not quite ready to join the hand pile. Carrie gave him a sardonic glance like she knew exactly what he was thinking.

“Julie?” Flynn asked. She held out her hand, not to Carrie or the Instrument, but palm up to her best friend. Julie laid her hand in Flynn’s, also palm up, and Flynn took both their hands and slapped it down on top of them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to show Flynn and Carrie getting the Instrument but this was already So Much and also I'm publishing it technically late, it's tomorrow even for me. That scene is going on my list of outtakes, alternates, and extras for the series, which is a very very long list at this point.  
> Caleb's really fracturing at this point, because he knows people are using his ego and need for control to defeat him but also that's all he has in his playbook. I also just really like people mocking Caleb, I think he deserves it.  
> Later today (ha) I will be presenting the time travel portion of the resolution! Ahhhhh! We're so close. Oh my god we are SO close.


	33. The Pearly Gates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A hospital hallway Julie never wanted to see again. A taste of Caleb's own medicine. A reunion.

Julie knew this place. It was the hospital waiting room where she’d spent hours, back when her mom was sick. She tensed, worried that their sudden appearance out of nowhere would draw attention, but it was empty; the most that happened was the receptionist glanced up and looked startled.

“I’m afraid visiting hours are over,” she said. “Are… are your parents here?”

“Yes! Sorry, we were…” Julie blanked on all possible endings to that sentence. Oh god, they were here to stop her mom from being saved. She’d had to say goodbye to her mother as she fought an evil ghost, in order to go back in time and save that evil ghost, and now she was having to make excuses for things like _visiting hours_?

“We’re just waiting for somebody,” Nick said. “Visiting hours _just_ ended a little bit ago, right?”

“Fair enough,” the receptionist said. She shook her head. “Look, you can wait for a little bit.”

“That’s all we’ll need,” Carrie said. “Uh, _Julie_. Maybe you could go down and tell my parents that we’re running a little late?”

Julie stared at Carrie. Carrie rolled her eyes and tugged Julie away from the receptionist’s desk.

“Guys!” she hissed, and the rest of their friends quickly flocked to her.

“What exactly are you planning?” Julie asked Carrie.

“Look, you have magic and that magic lets you be invisible,” Carrie said. “Which I don’t know the details on, but you’re the best person to fight Caleb and the only lifer who won’t also run into trouble with the people who work here.”

“I don’t even know _how_ ,” Julie protested.

“When you did it before, you said you just didn’t want people to see you,” Luke said.

“I feel like that a lot, I’ve never turned invisible,” Julie said.

“You feel like what?” Flynn asked sharply, somehow sensing the self-deprecation even though she couldn’t hear half the conversation.

“Julie, you can do this,” Luke said. “And we can come with you. You won’t be alone.”

It was the first time they’d really interacted since Reggie told her about them in the other timeline. Julie searched Luke’s face, wondering what he saw when he looked at her. Some kind of tragic lost girlfriend? Was he glad this was happening?

But he just looked sad.

“Yeah, we’re with you as long as you need us,” Alex said.

Julie looked to Reggie.

“Oh, is this one of those things where we all have a little dramatic speech? I’m with Luke, I’ll stick with you, I thought it was a given,” Reggie said.

“Dude,” Alex said.

“What?” Reggie asked.

“Willie? Are you coming, too?” Julie asked. The fourth ghost looked startled.

“Uh – Am I?”

“I mean, I figured if I’m bringing a bunch of ghosts I could bring all the ghosts,” Julie said. “And I know we just beat Caleb, kind of, but I bet you’d enjoy seeing his face when you mess up his day, again.”

She just wanted as many people with her as she could get. People to remind her there would be something after this.

Willie looked ready to say no, but something made him hesitate. He nodded.

“Thank you,” Julie said. “All of you.”

“This is a great conversation to only hear part of,” Flynn said. “But the receptionist is looking at us funny. Should we maybe make it look like we’re sending Julie down the stairs?”

“Yeah, let’s… move,” Nick said. They awkwardly shuffled over in a group to the stairwell, and Julie took a deep breath, trying to think of herself as invisible. She didn’t want the receptionist looking at her.

Really, she didn’t want anyone looking at her, because she was about to do something unforgiveable.

“Jules! Holy – Julie, you’re invisible!” Flynn hissed, eyes wide. Nick looked like somebody had just handed him a live cobra and told him to play nice.

“Hey, Julie, do you think you could try letting us see you?” Luke asked awkwardly.

“Oh, uh –“ Julie took another breath, trying to convince herself that these ghosts should see her. They knew her, or they were supposed to, and they understood what it cost her to do this.

They’d helped finish her mother’s song. They had to know.

“There you are,” Luke said quietly. He reached out, only for his hand to pass through hers. His shoulders slumped and he grinned ruefully at Julie.

“Let’s go?” he said.

“Please!” Carrie said. “Please go, and stop stalling.”

“Some things don’t change,” Julie muttered, leading the ghosts down the hall to where her mom’s room had been. Even after all this time, she remembered the walk there.

As they approached, Julie heard somebody talking.

“You said you could cast this, what do you mean you can’t do it?”

“Ava,” Alex growled.

“I can’t _hurt_ anyone, remember? And a trade like this, that hurts people! You said you had a way of making her live. The whole purpose of this little exercise was to get me free of Julie’s little deal.”

“So show me how to do it,” Ava replied.

“You,” Caleb said through gritted teeth. Julie and her ghost entourage crept closer. Caleb and Ava were in the doorway of her mother’s room, and Julie crouched behind a cart to watch them. The boys scrambled to hide behind her.

“Me,” Ava said. “We’re much the same, you and I, when it comes to power. The difference between us is I never needed to bother with your little magic tricks.”

“Magic tricks? Those tricks gave me more power than anyone, living or dead, in all of Hollywood.”

“Well, it’s a small place, sweetheart, but I suppose you’ve got to start somewhere,” Ava said with condescension dripping from her words. “Is this a spell I could learn, given what you know about my power, or not?”

Caleb scowled.

“Yes,” he admitted finally.

Julie needed to stand up, to draw their attention, to stop them somehow. But her mom was in the other room, about to either miraculously recover or approach death’s door.

“Julie,” Reggie said quietly. “You can do it.”

In his ideal timeline, so many people had been alive and together. Julie couldn’t give him all of that, couldn’t give herself all of it – but she could give them all a little piece of it.

“How about you don’t do anything?” Julie said to Caleb and Ava, standing up.

“How did you –“ Ava’s eyes narrowed, and she looked at the Instrument in her hand with horror.

“Don’t tell me you’re here to stop us,” Caleb scoffed. He looked past Julie at the ghosts who’d stood up after her. “Did they tell you what you’re stopping? Do you know why we’re here?”

“I know, and you won’t turn me against them,” Julie said, sounding braver than she felt. What was she supposed to do? Send them back to the future? Could she even do that? “I know what that spell will do. Every month it will happen again, right?”

Caleb frowned.

“Ava,” he said quietly. “That’s a lot of power to put into the spell. And something tells me you have no intention of paying that price for long.”

Ava scoffed.

“Oh, please, Caleb, would I really drain my one ally’s power?” she said, though she glanced at Julie nervously. Julie searched for something else to say, some other way to drive a wedge between them, but she didn’t need to.

“Of course you would, you hate me,” Caleb said. “Was any of this even _about_ Julie?”

“Do you think I enjoy seeing _my_ Instrument in the hands of some child? She doesn’t even use it, the poor dear!”

It took Julie a moment to realise the ‘poor dear’ in question was the Instrument. She looked over at Luke, puzzled. He shrugged at her.

“Oh, stop whining about your precious Instrument! The balance of power in dead Hollywood is at stake!”

“Oh, and whose fault is that?” Ava said mockingly. “Honestly, Caleb, nobody will miss you.”

“And you? You _play_ with people’s lives like they’re chess pieces!”

“Oh, please, I hate chess,” Ava said. “Stories, yes. Science experiments, most definitely. I fail to see your point.”

“Is this just what they’re like?” Julie asked her friends quietly.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Luke said. “I don’t know why they keep working together, they _hate_ each other.”

“My point is, I should never have gotten involved with you,” Caleb spat. “I should have known. This is all another one of your games, to see how desperate you can make me.”

“Oh, please, I’ve seen you desperate, it’s not that interesting. You’re not nearly as fascinating to anyone else as you are to yourself.”

Caleb snarled, whipping a hand out toward Ava, only to double over, clutching his hand close to his chest. Ava laughed.

“I should never have bothered with you,” she said. “You’re pathetic, and all Julie Molina did was drag that fact out for the world to see.”

Julie took a step forward, hoping they wouldn’t see her. If she hoped hard enough, wouldn’t she disappear from their view?

Ava and Caleb certainly didn’t notice as she stepped closer. The Instrument was within reach now, and Julie grabbed it. A low hum filled the hall, and Ava and Caleb froze. Julie reached out to Caleb, too angry about everything he’d put her through to really consider why her hand didn’t pass through him.

“Go home,” she said to them. “You’re not changing anything anymore.”

She let go just as the hum intensified. Caleb and Ava were gone, and the Instrument hovered in the air for a second before vanishing in a wisp of smoke.

“Do we have any idea where it went?” Julie asked the ghosts.

“No, but I really hope it’s with Carrie,” Alex said.

“Yeah,” Julie said. “Let’s go home.”

Carrie, Nick, and Flynn were where they’d left them. When Carrie saw them, she whispered to Nick and Flynn, waved at the receptionist cheerfully, and smacked the down button on the elevator.

“I think maybe we should disappear from a place without any people,” she said when Flynn gave her a weird look.

“That does make sense,” Nick said. As the elevator doors closed and Julie let herself be visible once more, he reached out to her.

“Are you ok?” he asked softly.

“I’m fine,” Julie said. Nobody looked like they believed her. “I will be.”

Nick’s brow furrowed, but he didn’t say anything else. Carrie lifted up the Instrument.

“Shall we go home?” she asked.

“Please,” Julie said. They all piled their hands on top of the Instrument, and the elevator filled with that now-familiar hum, and then Julie was home.

She stumbled back, away from the group, memories slotted into place as though they’d always been there.

“Julie?” Reggie said quietly.

“Oh my god,” Flynn said. “Julie – _Carrie,_ I –“

Flynn hugged Carrie desperately. Nick had one hand over his mouth.

“Hot dog,” Willie murmured, reaching for Alex’s hand. Alex smiled at him and tugged him closer, holding Willie’s head to his shoulder as Willie relaxed into the hug.

Julie looked at Reggie and Luke. They were watching her, almost fearfully, like they were worried she hadn’t remembered.

“Luke,” she said. “Reggie. Come here.”

She held out her hands, and her boyfriends wasted no time falling into her embrace. Julie clung to them and started to cry.

If she had any breath left, any chance of making a noise beyond sobs, she’d tell them how sorry she was that she ever forgot them. She’d say to them how much she loved them. She’d go to Alex and Carrie and Willie and Nick and tell them how glad she was to have them.

But her throat was raw and her body couldn’t muster the energy to speak, so she just hiccupped herself dry and let her friends join the group hug – first Alex and Willie, at her feeble wave, then Flynn, then Nick. Finally, Julie lifted her eyes and saw Carrie standing there, watching her.

“Get over here,” she said, because Carrie had always responded to bluntness better anyway, and the one hand she had free she used to grab Carrie’s shoulder when she got close. Carrie pressed her forehead to Julie’s over Reggie’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
> 
> ok so now that's out of the way. one chapter left. It's all just emotions and resolution.  
> and then, a final interlude. And after that the last big fic, the seventh big one and the thirteenth one of all, to finish it off. I'm full of many emotions right now, but the biggest one is gratitude for all of you, whether you've been around since the early days of Phantom Singular or you found and bingeread this later. This fic especially wouldn't exist without all of you, and I treasure each and every sign that somebody has read or liked this series. It's meant so much to me to write, and to put out into the world. Thank you all so much.


	34. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are things to talk about. Julie makes a plan.

The first day after they came back was awkward. Nobody really avoided anybody else – actually, the ghosts in particular spent the whole day following Julie around, as far as Carrie could tell – but their lunchtime conversation was subdued. Flynn sat next to Carrie, leaned into her space, held her hand and stole part of her lunch, but she didn’t say much. It made Carrie nervous, which probably wasn’t fair, because Carrie didn’t exactly say much to Flynn either.

“Is everything ok?” Kayla asked, eyeing Carrie, Flynn, Julie, and Nick as they sat in awkward silence. Luke and Reggie were chattering away, apparently saying whatever came to mind, but that had never stopped Carrie and the other lifers from speaking up before, and it probably seemed really weird to anybody who couldn’t see ghosts. “You guys are usually _way_ more chaotic.”

“It’s been – it was a weird night last night,” Flynn said awkwardly. Carrie snorted. Flynn elbowed her, sticking her tongue out playfully. Carrie sniffed and dramatically lifted her chin, glad that they were still the same with each other. She squeezed Flynn’s hand, and Flynn squeezed back.

“Apparently,” Kayla said. “Julie, you look dead inside.”

Julie opened her mouth, but nothing came out for a moment.

“Thanks?” she said finally.

Kayla shrugged at her.

“I don’t know, just make sure you’re sleeping?” she said awkwardly. Carrie usually appreciated her friends’ willingness to accept that she and Julie were hanging out again, but this was possibly one of the more uncomfortable conversations they’d had.

“Thanks,” Julie said. She laughed awkwardly. “Seriously, thanks for looking out for me? I’m sleeping fine. But…”

“Yeah, no problem,” Kayla said, apparently almost as weirded out as everybody else, and she turned to talk to Sadie. Julie and Carrie made eye contact.

Carrie snorted. Julie burst into giggles.

“I don’t know what’s happening but I think it’s good?” Reggie stage-whispered to Alex, who opened his mouth like he wanted to reply before shaking his head.

“Do you want to come over after school?” Julie asked Carrie when she’d caught her breath.

Carrie didn’t know if she was ready to, but she also didn’t know if she’d ever be ready. She wanted Julie’s friendship. She wasn’t throwing away everything they’d done because of stupid Caleb and Ava.

“All of you,” Julie said with a glance around the ghost-aware half of the table.

“Sure,” Flynn said immediately. Nick looked at Carrie. He looked as reluctant to deal with this as Carrie felt.

“Fine,” Carrie said.

“Yeah,” Nick agreed a second later.

“I don’t know, Julie, it might be difficult for me to come over to your house,” Willie drawled, cackling when Flynn elbowed him. Alex smiled faintly, but Carrie didn’t miss the way he pressed closer to Willie. Maybe they were all a little messed up after their recent adventures.

Nick was on Julie’s doorstep when Carrie got there that afternoon. He gave her a sheepish grin when he saw her.

“Nervous?” Carrie said.

“Is it that obvious?” Nick asked, nervously adjusting his hat a few times until it looked like it was about to fall. Carrie reached up and righted it with a pointed lift of one eyebrow. He laughed, lowering his hand.

“Because of your mom,” Carrie said. “Right?”

Nick shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Yeah,” he said. “I just – it feels like it was her mom or mine. And I know I’m not the only one, but it feels like it’s my fault. I wouldn’t exactly blame Julie if she hated me.”

“You know she wouldn’t,” Carrie said. “Talk to her.”

“Carrie Wilson, are you giving me actual emotional advice?” Nick said. Carrie shoved him, and he laughed.

“You’ve been weird all day, too,” he said. “You feel guilty, too?”

“It was my life I was afraid of losing, from the start. I started all this because I didn’t want to start over with my girlfriend,” Carrie muttered bitterly. “If I hadn’t, Julie and her mom would never have known.”

“And my mom would be dead,” Nick said. “All those other people, their moms would be dead.”

Carrie knew that. But it didn’t change the fact that she hadn’t known she was looking for anything other than her own self-satisfaction. The things Julie and Flynn had told her when she tried to speed-run her apology floated through her memory.

“I know I’m selfish, Nick,” Carrie said. “And maybe I do good things, but are they good if I never think about anybody else when I do them?”

Nick took a slow breath in and out.

“I think you’re being ridiculous and trying to punish yourself,” he said. “And that Julie wouldn’t blame you either. You want to tell me I should talk to her? _You’re_ the one who needs to talk to her.”

“I better not be hearing the two of you avoiding your problems by helping each other, because everybody knows that kind of bad coping mechanism is _my_ job,” Flynn said from behind them. “And have either of you rung the doorbell?”

“I knocked,” Nick said.

“Did you do it loud enough for anyone to hear you?” Flynn asked. Nick coughed and looked with great interest at the porch railing. Flynn sighed.

“You’re both going to talk to Julie,” Flynn announced, reaching past Carrie to hit the doorbell. “You’re welcome.”

“Flynn!” Carrie protested. Her girlfriend just smiled at her and kissed her on the cheek, which was a dirty, underhanded move.

“You’re here!” Julie said as she flung the door open. “Let’s go to the studio.” She grabbed Flynn’s wrist and Carrie’s and led them all to the studio.

“Carrie and Nick have things they need to say to you!” Flynn announced as they went, like the traitor she was. Julie paused, glancing first at Flynn then at Carrie. Carrie hastily grabbed Nick and shoved him forward.

“Nick,” Julie said. Carrie had a feeling Julie knew what Nick wanted to discuss. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said. Carrie took a step back. She wasn’t about to get out of earshot, not without putting a lot more work in and potentially annoying Flynn, who was watching her intently, but she could at least attempt to give them the feeling of privacy.

Actually, Carrie had a thing or two she wanted to ask Flynn about.

“So, you cope by making other people cope,” Carrie said quietly.

“What? No. Where would you get an idea like that?” Flynn asked. Carrie waited.

“Ok, so what? I’m working on it. We know this, we’ve been through it.” Flynn crossed her arms, on the verge of pouting.

“Is that what you’re doing now?” Carrie asked. Before Flynn could answer, her attention was drawn by Julie.

“Nick, _no!_ Enough!” Julie said. “It’s not your fault. I know what you were feeling. I’ve felt it, remember, that’s part of the problem? And I wouldn’t wish that on you. I don’t. I’m glad your mom is ok.”

Flynn and Carrie sidled a little further away. Carrie waited for Flynn to speak.

“I didn’t know anything,” Flynn said. “I couldn’t do anything.”

“You helped a lot,” Carrie said quietly. Being able to tell Flynn, being _believed_ – it had made all the difference.

“Not enough,” Flynn said. “You, and Julie, and the guys – I couldn’t even see most of our friends. I didn’t even _like_ you.”

“You’ve spent a lot of time not liking me, Flynn, it’s not new.”

“It wasn’t fair,” Flynn said. “Like, I know why, and it all made sense, but I hate that I did that to you. I hate that you had to do so much on your own. And Julie…”

Flynn looked down.

“I’ve never known how to help her after her mom died,” she admitted. “I just keep pushing. What else can I do?”

“You know you can do a lot more than that,” Carrie said softly.

“But not just now,” Flynn said. “I really hate that.”

“If I talk to Julie, will you?” Carrie asked. Flynn glanced over at Julie and Nick, and Carrie did too. They were hugging.

“Ok, fine,” Flynn said. “You need to more than I do, but I guess.”

“That is the exact opposite of the truth,” Carrie said. Nick and Julie pulled away, and Nick approached the other two girls and tapped Carrie on the shoulder.

“Your turn,” he said, entirely too smugly for a boy whose face was still tear-stained. Carrie made a face at him and took a few halting steps toward Julie.

“I’m sorry,” she said. Julie stared at her.

“You have spent so much time apologising lately, I honestly don’t know what you could be apologising for at this point,” she said flatly. Carrie scowled.

“How about everything? I made all of that about me, I was talking to people behind your back, I was basically plotting against your _mom_ –“

“You were trying to figure things out,” Julie said. “Look, am I upset? Am I furious? Yeah. But I know exactly how you felt when you woke up in that world, because it’s how I felt when Ava first changed the timeline. At least I had Reggie and Willie with me. You said you woke up alone.”

Carrie swallowed. She hadn’t thought of it like that.

“If it’s your fault my mom is gone,” Julie said. “It’s my fault that Luke and Alex are dead.”

Carrie shook her head.

“I still should say something,” she said. “Those things you said at school, about how I was doing everything to make me feel better, you weren’t wrong.”

Realisation dawned on Julie’s face.

“That’s why you backed off,” she said. Carrie nodded.

“Carrie, you have no idea how much I appreciate that,” Julie said. “And you have no idea how much it doesn’t actually matter. We’re friends, right?”

That was the first time since their fight Julie had said anything like that.

“Ok,” Carrie said. That was a bad response. “I mean, uh, yes.”

Julie laughed softly, shaking her head.

“So the apology was good the first time,” she said. “Thank you.”

Carrie felt like this was the moment, if they were anybody else, she and Julie would hug. As it was, she smiled awkwardly at Julie before beating a hasty retreat to Flynn and Nick.

“Your turn,” Carrie said, shoving Flynn forward.

“You guys know this isn’t a receiving line at a wedding, right?” Julie asked as Flynn stepped closer to her. “This is kind of weird.”

“Flynn has some things to say!” Carrie called. “Also, this is my revenge for her making me talk to you.”

“At least that makes sense for you,” Julie said, just loud enough for Carrie to know she’d been meant to hear. Carrie scowled playfully at Julie.

“Are you ok?” Nick asked her while Flynn started to speak rapidly. Carrie tried to focus on him and not what her girlfriend was saying.

“Yeah,” she said. “Was I right?”

“I like that _that’s_ your question,” Nick said. “And yeah, Julie didn’t blame me, like we both knew would happen.”

“Told you so,” Carrie said.

“And how’d it go for you?” Nick asked. Carrie turned away, refusing to admit defeat.

“And I know you’re going to say that it’s not my fault and it’s not my job, but you are my best friend in the entire world and it kind of is my job and I know I’m trying to get better about this but I think I should have been able to help more –“ Flynn was saying.

“Carrie,” Nick said. “You know it’s ok. And we all owe you a lot.”

“No,” Carrie said. “At most, we’re even.”

Julie and Flynn hugged.

“Ok,” Nick said.

“Julie!” Luke shouted, stepping through the closed studio door. A harried-looking Alex poked his head and arm through, trying to pull him back. “Are you coming?”

“Like you could get rid of me,” Julie said fondly, tucking her arm through Flynn’s and seeming to miss the way Luke flinched for a second. Carrie pursed her lips. They were _so_ messed up after this.

“I don’t ever want to try,” he said softly as Julie reached him, taking her free hand before she could open the door.

“Are you gonna let us in or…” Flynn trailed off, pushing the doors open herself. Luke chuckled sheepishly. Alex, a few feet away with an arm wrapped around Willie, rolled his eyes.

“It’s good to actually talk to everyone again,” Alex said quietly as Luke herded Julie towards the couch, where Reggie was lying upside down with his head off the edge, eyes closed and hands dangling on the floor. Julie gently picked his hands up, pushing at Reggie until he was sitting the right way up and then tucking herself into his side. Luke flung himself down next to her, making the whole couch bounce with the impact, and wrapped his arm over both his partners.

“Yeah, even if I have to hang out with a bunch of dead weirdoes you’re not a bad selection of dead weirdoes,” Flynn said, laughing as Willie made a face at her.

“I missed you too, Flynn,” he said. “Or, you know, I would’ve.”

“Aw,” Flynn said sardonically, but her face was soft. “I would have missed you, too, Willie.”

“Not so much Nick, though, you’re just the grumpiest person I’ve ever met,” Willie said, pulling away from Alex’s side to head towards the couch and chairs, ruffling Nick’s hair as he passed.

“I kind of wish the lacrosse season was on right now, if this is the kind of thing you’re going to put me through,” Nick said. He leaned against the coffee table, sitting on the floor facing the couch. Willie sat on the arm of the couch, and Alex squeezed himself in between his boyfriend and Luke. With an evil grin, Flynn clambered unnecessarily over the coffee table, narrowly avoiding hitting Nick in the head, and wriggled her way into the midst of Julie and her boyfriends.

“Get over here, both of you, this is a full and complete cuddle pile,” Flynn announced, nudging Nick with her foot. Nick awkwardly sat on the other arm of the couch, only sinking to lean against Reggie when Julie reached over to tug at Nick’s arm. Carrie approached slowly, trying to figure out what space there was for her.

Flynn rolled her eyes, grabbed Carrie with both hands, and tugged her girlfriend into her lap. She gently shoved at Carrie until she was laying across Julie, Flynn, and Luke’s laps.

“This is kind of weird,” Carrie said.

“Let it happen, sweetheart,” Flynn said, twining her fingers with Carrie’s. Carrie supposed she could accept that.

“I really wish it hadn’t happened how it did,” Reggie said suddenly. “But I’m really glad we’re all home together again.”

Carrie looked up at the faces around her. Nick looked solemn, Flynn conflicted, Alex guilty. Only Luke and Willie seemed to be in true agreement with Reggie.

“Not normal,” Julie said. “Not yet.”

“What?” Reggie said, a hint of a whine entering his voice. “Please tell me you didn’t make a new ghost enemy when you went to the bathroom after school or something.”

“Do you think there are ghosts who haunt bathrooms?” Luke said, reminding Carrie yet again why he and Reggie got along so well.

“I mean, there’s ghosts who died in bathrooms,” Willie offered.

“Nothing is going to be normal as long as Caleb and Ava are out there,” Julie said. “They want us gone.”

“Julie, what are you saying?” Carrie asked, sitting up awkwardly so she could actually face her. She ended up half on Alex’s lap, and with a quick glance they silently agreed never to mention it.

“Yeah, we’re done with the time travel, right?” Reggie asked.

“The Instrument wants to be used,” Julie said, looking directly at Carrie, who flinched as all their friends turned to look at her as well. “As long as Ava’s an option for it, I don’t know if we can count on it. And if we’ve learned anything from this, it’s that Caleb doesn’t care what he does to get his power back. I’m not going to let them come after us again when the year is up. When we can, I want to fight back.”

Her voice was uncharacteristically hard as she finished, “I won’t let him do anything like this again. Not to me, not to any of you, and he _definitely_ shouldn’t have done this to my mom.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here we are, at the end of another one.  
> (The name Sadie up there at the start was just a random name that my girlfriend chose and that I have ascribed to one of the Dirty Candi girls because it's weird for Carrie to never think said girls' names. You're welcome.)  
> I'll try to have the next one out soon, the day after tomorrow if not tomorrow - it's just the last interlude, some shippier mostly-fluff stuff as a breather and to fill in the time jump, because the final fic of this series will be at the end of Julie and Caleb's truce year! screams in "end of long series is rapidly approaching"  
> Again, thank you so much for accompanying me on this intense journey, and I'm sorry for emotional damages. The last ones will be... less on the situational angst. It's about the healing process now, folks!


End file.
